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Jeremy Clarkson explains why he won’t buy an electric car, reveals his biggest automotive regret

Jeremy Clarkson, the world’s most famous motoring journalist, is not about to buy an electric car anytime soon.


In a recent video clip, the former Top Gear UK TV presenter – who with his colleagues James May and Richard Hammond have moved to greener pastures with their new show The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime – revealed his biggest automotive regret and explained why he’s not a fan of electric cars.

After 26 seasons on the top-rating Top Gear UK TV show, Clarkson can comfortably afford to buy some of the supercars he and his colleagues test drive.

Although Clarkson has previously owned a VW Golf GTI and a succession of Volvo XC90 SUVs as daily drivers – amid a small collection of more exotic machinery from Ferrari to Ford GT – the straight-talking TV host said he’s not in a hurry to buy an electric car.

“I will never have an electric car,” said Clarkson on a new DriveTribe video that unearthed some previously unseen footage. “I can see that people like them and that they’re interesting (but) I just like the sound of a V8.”

Clarkson said: “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 Clarkson and his colleagues have road tested numerous electric cars, the TV host said: “I just wouldn’t buy an electric car. I’ve driven them I see that there’s an appeal ... I quite like the BMW i8.

“Call me a dinsoaur,” he added, “but I prefer Pink Floyd to Stormzy, and I prefer a Ford Mustang to a Tesla.”

When asked about his worst car purchasing decision, Clarkson instead answered with an example of his biggest automotive regret, which was selling a rare 1970s BMW 3.0-litre CSL, one of just 1265 built and one of just 500 sold in the UK.

“The worst car purchasing decision I’ve ever made wasn’t a purchasing decision at all,” said Clarkson.

“I don’t think I’ve ever bought a car I didn’t like, but I sold a BMW 3.0-litre CSL for, I don’t know, next to nothing. I think £3000 and that was idiotic. Absolutely idiotic.”

That amount of money equates to about $AUD5500. Today, however, pristine examples are fetching more than $200,000 overseas.

 

See the full interview on DriveTribe below.

Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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