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Tesla Sues Fisker, Is Sued by Magna
16 April 2008
Earth2Tech. While Tesla Motors is suing Fisker Automotive, charging theft of design ideas and trade secrets, it in turn is being sued by Magna Powertrain for breach of contract over work on the transmission for the Tesla Roadster.
The suit, filed by Magna on Feb. 22, accuses Tesla Motors of two counts of breach of contract for allegedly failing to pay Magna for transmission work. Magna was contracted in March 2007 to design a two-speed transmission for Tesla’s Roadster, then code-named “Dark Star.” Magna is seeking $5.6 million from Tesla, or about 56 new Roadsters.
This is just the latest twist in the saga of Tesla’s elusive transmission, which has caused major production delays and will require the company to retrofit the first vehicles later on with a new and simpler single-speed transmission. And Magna actually says in its suit that back September of 2006, when it started talking with Tesla, it originally suggested a one-speed transmission...
April 16, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
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my worry is that Tesla will get bogged down by all this litigation and cause further delay to the roll out of its EV sports cars. certainly if Magna is awarded the $5.6m they are seeking in damages it will harm Tesla's ability to ramp up production of the Roadster.
Posted by: eric | Apr 16, 2008 4:51:03 AM
Tragic... The market is not open and the few new players are already fighting!
Posted by: Fabio Ferrai | Apr 16, 2008 5:19:57 AM
Can they even produce 56 roadsters this year??
(Playing my usual role of incompetent enviro-engineer.)
Posted by: JJSpawn | Apr 16, 2008 5:30:03 AM
Sigh... this has all happened before. Google "Preston Tucker" for me, would you?
Posted by: The Scoot | Apr 16, 2008 6:09:32 AM
What would we do without litigation?
Long live frivolous lawsuits! Perhaps in another country (not encumbered by lawyers) progress will not be hindered. Say, how's China progressing with their electric vehicles?
I want a mass-produced, reliable BEV now!
Posted by: DieselHybrid | Apr 16, 2008 7:18:58 AM
Let's not forget that Magna gets almost 100% of its sales from the Big 3+++.
It was the wrong place, for potential competition, to go.
Telsa's inexperience?
Posted by: Harvey D | Apr 16, 2008 8:34:06 AM
It seems that Magna has a basis for their action. The whole Tesla one speed/two speed thing is a bit odd. Then they fire a bunch of people to make sacrifices to the shareholders. Start up companies can show some odd behavior, but this is really strange.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 16, 2008 9:24:09 AM
This is really disappointing. There appears to be a genuine crisis of leadership at Tesla. Someone at the company should make a statement as to what's going on, even if it's just stating the obvious, to try and form the impression that things aren't out of control. I really want them to get through this and do well.
Posted by: Elliot | Apr 16, 2008 11:24:06 AM
Can anyone comment on the part about Tesla suing Fisker?
From the little I've read the Fisker sounds like a brilliantly designed vehicle.
Posted by: phronesis | Apr 16, 2008 11:57:35 AM
Well, well... Are we off our meds again? Seems like the tired old doomsday staffers have answered the call to arms. Hey fellas, how can we dump on the only electric roadster that is actually in production? Let's hand wring and catastrophize about disagreement with parts suppliers! Clearly Magna's two speed trannie failed to meet contractual specs - Tesla refused to pay em - so now Magna sues for... failing.
And then Tesla hired Henrik...Fiskar to design the four door White Star. But Henrik turned in substandard work, walked with Tesla intellectual property and about $875k to make his own electric car. Doh! So Tesla says give us back our money and trade secrets.
Magna has no case. Fisker will be restrained and Lotus is working on the White Star (for the better probably).
But let's refer to page 456 of our dogeared copies of the old Manipulation Manual and see if we can dampen their spirits! Talk about pathetic old methods...
Posted by: syshrink | Apr 16, 2008 12:18:42 PM
More and more, Tesla is ...Vaporware.
What production ?
Outside of a few pre-production prototypes, given to the auto media for publicity puff pieces, or touring the auto shows, there is still No production...
Posted by: stas peterson | Apr 16, 2008 3:26:34 PM
Stan:
This is where they're at according to the company website:
"Michael Marks, CEO of Tesla Motors, has established a production goal of 50 cars in the first quarter of 2008, followed by an additional 600 cars for the remainder of the year."
And they have 245 mile/charge combined EPA mileage. And 0-60mph in under 4 seconds.
"The EPA cycle test result was observed by CARB (California Air Resources Board) staff and is expected to be formally certified by EPA in the near future, as is standard procedure."
But hey, let's NOT support people spending money to produce a green car electric vehicle because it arrives from politically incorrect people. Xenophobia???
Posted by: gr | Apr 16, 2008 9:45:55 PM
This reminds me of the Wright Brothers –Glenn Curtis patent dispute over the use of ailerons and wing warping. This dispute went on for years and stifled aviation invitation in this country so badly that the United States was not able to field any successful indigenous aircraft in World War One.
Any EV’s on the road are a major success and will help this country once again become energy independent. Some sort of mediation is in order. It would be a shame if either company failed after successfully overcoming huge technical issues because of this litigation.
Posted by: Jim | Apr 16, 2008 11:51:53 PM
The patent system needs upgrading. Recover your development cost and then compete. No sitting on patents waiting to sue. Bring the product to market or lose the patent.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 17, 2008 9:33:15 AM
What patented technology could have Henrik Fisker possibly used? The two autos are not even alike. Tesla business plan is a complete failure due to their lack of cooperation with others in the related industries. Now they are crying foul play? Tesla should give other people credit for contributions to the EV movement, instead of claiming exclusive intellectual super(cede)ority.
Jim is correct; bring the product to market. That is the whole reason for patent protection; it is not intended to prevent innovation. If technology happens to overlap the courts can decide after the fact and award %royalty.
Posted by: jeffery province | Apr 17, 2008 2:42:13 PM
What a lot of investors do not want is an injunction. Production can get shut down because of a patent infringement judgment. The investors can lose all their money and that uncertainty can cause problems raising capital in the first place.
People understand that patents should protect innovation, but I would hope that most would agree that it should not be a monopoly license. You do a patent search and review, file your patents if necessary and get on with it. Make some certainty in the process, business investors do not like uncertainty.
Posted by: sjc | Apr 17, 2008 9:04:44 PM
The name Tesla has always been associated with wild schemes... "I've found the Tesla car" and so forth. He was an innovator, but somehow his name has stuck with the scammers... so one needs to consider the source.
Tesla auto has done some amazing runs. They have acceleration that no one can dispute. Their mileage ratings, however, give them something like 82% efficiency in their driving... something remotely possible on a track, but not on a highway. Their battery technology might explain both how they get this range and why there is 1 to 2 years between runs. (Time to replace the dead batteries and charge each one separately?)
Thus far, they have not released a product to a single tester. We have only their word that they've done what they say they can do.
I'm thinking this is another scam, along the lines of the other greats.
I truly hope I'm wrong. If this proves to remotely practical (as in one trip to the grocery store per month) then I'll suspend my disbelief. In the meantime, it sounds like another Sparrow... without actually producing a car.
Posted by: Michael | Apr 18, 2008 2:52:36 PM
That Tesla suing anybody is a real laugh to me - their whole concept is based on reverse engineering General Motor's EV1 and its Baldor Electric-developed induction motors. How about the pot calling the kettle black?
Posted by: James C | Aug 6, 2008 9:36:11 AM
