Tesla Sues Fisker over Sedan Design

By Eric Boyd on April 15, 2008 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tags:

Fisker,

Tesla

Apparently Tesla hired Fisker to do the styling of their "white star" sedan, paid $800,000, but didn't like the results. Then, less than a year later, Fisker shows up at the Detroit Auto Show with a car sounding suspiciously like the White Star - a stylish 4-door sedan electric vehicle with a range-extending ICE.

Now, Tesla wants their money back. AND, unspecified damages. AND, for Fisker to stop using any Tesla drawings or design information he may still retain. Tesla even suspects that Fisker sabotaged his work for Tesla in order to slow them down - deliberately didn't make his best effort, as it were. If true, that's pretty evil.

You can read all about it at Wired Autopia and Autoblog Green. Or read on for a few more of my thoughts.

I first want to say that I thought the Autoblog Green post had a rather "blame the victim" tone: sure, Tesla has had it's own problems recently, but this case should not be about their behavior and the doubts we have about them and their new management. Obviously it's going to have an impact on Tesla PR - it's never good be known as a company that sues. But on the surface, it sure looks like Tesla has a legitimate case against Fisker - it is frankly outrageous that Fisker even took the job when he had this obvious conflict of interest.

But the larger picture here is also rather scary. As the recent Wired story on ZAP Vaporware shows, the EV industry has been plagued by less-than-reputable businesses, and it would be a shame to see Fisker go down in flames over this. I wish in fact that it had been settled quietly - I'm sure Tesla must have approached Fisker about that possibility, but clearly they didn't get what they wanted.

I believe that there is lots of room in the market for the type of vehicle Fisker and Tesla plan to build. Let's focus on growing the market rather than fighting each other, shall we? Settle quickly and release a statement that you love each other, please :-)