It was perhaps inevitable that once we had two legitimate and well-financed electric car companies, we would have allegations of back-stabbing and industrial espionage as they race to produce the first high-end hybrid electric sedan.
Tesla Motors says it has been the victim of just those kinds of dirty tricks at the hands of Henrik Fisker, the renowned automotive designer who signed an $875,000 $800,000 contract to design Tesla's forthcoming sedan, codenamed WhiteStar.
Tesla argues that Fisker, as head of Fisker Coachbuild, and his chief operating officer signed the contract only to get a look at Tesla's confidential design information and trade secrets, then launched Fisker Automotive and announced a competing vehicle - the $80,000 Karma - less than a year later.
"This is pretty outrageous," Tesla's lawyer, Adam C. Belsky of Gross Belsky & Alonso, told us. "They hired him to do body design and interior design work for the WhiteStar - a four-door high performance electric hybrid sedan. Unbeknownst to them, he was developing his own four-door high-performance electric hybrid sedan."
Fisker issued a statement saying, "We believe that the allegations set forth in the complaint are without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously."
Belsky says Tesla and Fisker Coachbuild signed the contract in February 2007 and it expressly stipulated that all of the information about the WhiteStar would remain confidential. Although the contract allowed Fisker to do design work for other firms, Belsky says "that doesn't mean he can take Tesla's information and develop his own car."
The lawsuit says Fisker didn't know the first thing about hybrid technology when Tesla hired him and was subsequently given access to the WhiteStar file - including engineering and design drawings, component specifications and analysis of various batteries. In other words, everything he might need to design a competing car, Belsky says.
More than that, though, Tesla accuses Fisker of doing shoddy work once hired - essentially sabotaging the WhiteStar - then used the revenue to develop the Karma. Tesla Chairman Elon Musk told the New York Times, "The styling was substandard compared to what he unveiled for his product. He gave us an inferior work product, and it's obvious why."
Tesla says it scrapped Fisker's work and started from scratch when they learned Fisker was launching a competing company - a setback that cost Tesla three to six months.
Tesla plans to offer the WhiteStar in two versions - all electric and series hybrid. It hopes to have the car on the road by 2010 with a price between $50,000 and $70,000, depending upon the drivetrain and other options.
Fisker's designed cars for the likes of Ford, BMW and Aston Martin, and it doesn't take a genius to see hybrids are the Next Big Thing for the auto industry. Isn't it possible Fisker was already working on the Karma and the timing is coincidence?
"It completely strains credibility," Belsky says, adding there are "a lot of similarities between the Karma and the early work he did on the WhiteStar." He would not elaborate, but the lawsuit says "the major specifications that Fisker announced for the Karma are virtually identical to specifications that were provided to him by Tesla for the WhiteStar."
In addition to unspecified damages, the suit seeks the return of the money Tesla paid Fisker and demands that he stop using the company's design documents.
No one at Fisker Automotive returned the Times' calls, and someone at the law firm representing Fisker Coachbuild said the firm does not comment on pending litigation. As we noted, Fisker denies the allegations.
Fisker unveiled the Karma at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, and we can tell you the consensus at the show was it's drop-dead gorgeous. It's widely believed that the car Fisker unwrapped was nothing more than an elaborate model with nothing whatsoever under the hood - which Fisker officials wouldn't open for us.
Still, Quantum Technologies says its "Q-Drive"
drivetrain will give the car a range of 50 miles on battery power alone and 620 miles with the small gasoline engine driving a generator that will charge the battery. It's a similar setup - and projected range -
to what General Motors is shooting for with the Chevrolet Volt.
There's been little news out of the company in the months since then, beyond a vague mention that the car could be built in Detroit, and some call it a gorgeous bit of vaporware. Fisker's lined up truckloads of cash from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the biggest - if not the biggest - names in Silicon Valley venture capital. But it remains to be seen how the lawsuit effects development of the car - and investment from backers.
