The former BBC and Top Gear presenter has made some controversial comments about electric vehicles and their effect on the climate. If you ever thought you’d see the 63-year-old zipping around in a Tesla or similar electric vehicle you’d be sorely mistaken.
In a segway of one of his shows, Clarkson managed to question the reputation of energy efficient electric cars in a review for the Toyota GR86 which he affectionately called “rorty and nice”.
“I truly loved driving this car, and I loved the noise it made too, until I discovered it was an artificial sound coming at me through the speakers, Then I hated it.”
Clarkson thinks that electric vehicles stand in the way of a proper gentleman’s cruise like the good old days. He kicked off his lengthy rant by saying this:
“It was what young men did before the invention of quiche Lorraine and weird pronouns. [They] drove sports cars… [that] sent out a clear message: ‘I have no need for practicality in my life. I am single and I’m carefree and I like the wind in my hair’.”
“When did man’s interest in sports cars (or perhaps, an interest in suffering through a midlife crisis) fade?
“I’m not sure when the allure of the sports car began to wane. It’s not a drive to be green.
“People realise electric vehicles aren’t as green as they’re made out to be, that they are phenomenally expensive to buy and increasingly expensive to reinvigorate, assuming of course you can find a charging location,”
“Which, as there’s only one for every 30 electric vehicles on the road, is unlikely. And nor are there increasingly draconian rules about the height a bonnet should be. No. It’s a general malaise.”
This is certainly not the first time that Clarkson has rowed over electric cars.
“I will never have an electric car,” Clarkson said
“I can see that people like them and that they’re interesting [but] I just like the sound of a V8. I never want to drive a car that hasn’t got a nice sound coming out of the front or the back, and petrol does that. I’m nearly 60, I can drive petrol cars til I die.”
Although him and his colleagues Richard Hammond and James May haave test driven numerous electric cars, the host still reckons that an electric car isn’t as good as the traditional gas powered car.
“Call me a dinosaur, but I prefer Pink Floyd to Stormzy, and I prefer a Ford Mustang to a Tesla,” he said.
