Elon Musk revealed the 'messed up' reason he sued television company for $171,000 over one bad Tesla review

Elon Musk has spoken out about why he sued British broadcaster the BBC after one of its shows presented Tesla in a negative light.

Considering that it's hard to leave the house without seeing a Tesla nowadays it's safe to say the electric carmaker was able to bounce back from the review, but at the time Musk felt the reputation of his company was at risk.

The legal battle began after Tesla was featured on a 2008 episode of the BBC's series Top Gear, which showcased and reviewed a variety of cars.

In the episode, host Jeremy Clarkson claimed the Tesla Roadster would 'run out [of battery] after just 55 miles' on the Top Gear track, despite Tesla assuring it could run for 200 miles.

"If it does run out, it is not a quick job to charge it up again," Clarkson said.

The Tesla appeared to run out of battery on the track (BBC)

The episode also featured footage of the cast and crew pushing the Roadster into the Top Gear hangar and recharging it.

After the show aired, Tesla hired a libel specialist lawyers Carter-Ruck and claimed that the episode had cost the company the sale of 200 Roadsters, as well as causing costs of $171,000.

The company also claimed it had damaged investor confidence.

Years after the claim was filed, Musk spoke about the legal battle when he sat down for an interview with Joe Rogan.

He remembered that at the time Tesla was a 'little company' which only had a 'few cars', but they agreed to be featured on Top Gear for review.

Musk continued: "One of our engineers goes, delivers the car, and then he sees a script on the table. He's like 'how'd you write the script? We only just gave you the car'."

According to Musk, the pre-written script featured a segment in which the Tesla broke down.

Elon Musk described the review as 'messed up' (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"It's messed up," he said, before alleging: "The car never broke down. They just pretended that it did, and they wrote the script."

In spite of Musk's claims about the way the episode was created, in 2013 a court of appeal officially rejected Tesla's complaint that its reputation had been damaged.

Appeal court judge Lord Justice Moore-Bick commented: "In the basis of the material currently before the court I do not think that there is any real prospect of Tesla's being able to demonstrate at trial that it has suffered any quantifiable loss by reason of any of the actionable statements."