Since we were on the subject on the Tesla Roadster yesterday, we hinted at some of the problems the company met.
Barely coming out of the woods by finally producing its first roadster is the company slapped by a law suit from former disgruntled employees. Former Director of Public Relations, David Vespremi who feels his position was wrongly terminated. There are talks of class-action law suits but that will depend on what the judge decides.
What’s sad here is that Tesla has already had to endure a few lawsuits previously. First there was the transmission partner Tesla worked with, Magna. It turned sour after Tesla realized the gear box just wasn’t holding up to specs. This led to the first suit, the Magna law suit. We briefly mentioned yesterday Tesla ’s first gearbox unit from its first supplier, X-Trac that just couldn’t handle the torque. Actually the real problem was that the original intent was to do clutch-less shifting and manage the torque output of the motor during the shifts. That proved to not work the way Tesla had hoped for. Tesla then partnered with Magna hoping to jointly develop a transmission for the roadster. Magna wasn’t upset it didn’t get the contract but they wanted to get paid for the work done on the development of the dropped project. We are talking about $5.6 million worth of studies for Magna.
Then comes in Fisker. Tesla commissioned Fisker to help design its second product, the Whitestar sedan, a five seat all electric sedan aimed at $60,000. Tesla Motors sues Fisker claiming it stole trade secrets used to build the Karma.
So did Fisker take some of the study it did for Tesla in order to design its Karma car? We found this article that sheds more light. Hard to say until we see the Tesla Motors Whitestar sedan. However according to Elon Musk, Tesla Motors Chairman: “We could not use the Fisker styling. The styling was substandard compared to what he unveiled for his product. He gave us an inferior work product, and it’s obvious why.”
My, oh my how business is done these days. And all we consumers want are great alternative to fuel burning polluting expensive gas cars. Tesla is the darling poster child of the all electric roadster and Fisker has a great contender with its performance hybrid sedan. Can’t we all just get along and have you guys concentrate on manufacturing our toys?