Green car wars: Tesla takes Fisker to court
Is this the story of how two fledgling Silicon Valley car companies destroyed each other with lawsuits before they ever got off the ground? I sure hope not. Two of the most exciting electric cars on the road are the Tesla Roadster and the Fisker Karma, but it seems that before they can meet on the drag strip, they're going to first have to duke it out in the courtroom. According to the NY Times, Tesla believes that Fisker stole some of their design and trade secrets.It's an interesting peak into the small world of Silicon Valley startups. As the story goes, Tesla hired Henrik Fisker -- a premiere sports car designer -- for $875,000 to create a body for their upcoming 4-door sedan, nicknamed the "White Star." The lawsuit alleges that Fisker took the job only to create sub-standard designs for the project, steal the trade secrets, and use the revenues to make his own eerily similar startup electric car company.
According to Tesla's version of the story, Fisker intentionally handed them an unusable design to sabotage their sedan -- which set back production 3-6 months. Certainly, there are some design similarities between the Karma and the White Star: both vehicles are extended-range "serial hybrids," which use a small gas powered generator to charge the main drive battery.
Tesla claims that Fisker knew nothing about electric vehicles before he worked with them. So, it does look a little fishy that he turns around and immediately starts a company that uses similar technology. Who knows whether Tesla can really make a case, but I though this quote from Tesla's attorney was an instant classic:
"I think it's ironic that Fisker chose to name his car the Karma, when what he's done is very bad karma."[via Earth2Tech]
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