I'm really struggling to give a crap

Apparently the name Tesla just inites trade secret theft. First the radio, now this.....

@OldeEnglishD: invites

"If Tesla had a head start on the design-work why didn't they just progress with Fisker's current design and beat him to the show floor?"

Well if they're alleging that he sabotaged the design, it wouldn't really make sense for them to use the design. Even if he didn't sabotage the design the very fact that he went on to found his own electric/hybrid company might certainly make them suspicious enough to have another engineering team go over the original design to make sure it wasn't sabotaged, and that would cause some delays.

That Fisker sure is a pretty car though, whether or not it's got trade secrets under the hood.

And they thought Fisker was such a great employee, always "taking some work home" with him.

I have to side with Tesla because Fisker has a history of "borrowing" ideas... Isn't their whole program based on esentially putting body kits on BMW M6s and XKRs and calling them Fiskers?

I wasn't aware that Fisker worked on the White Star project - or at Tesla at all. It's hurts Fisker's case that he hadn't worked with hybrids before his relationship with Tesla.

I really want to see Tesla succeed. It is disappointing that the company ousted Eberhard (its freaking founder), but such is the danger of VC money.

Hank the Fish and Barney the Cooler starring in a project called Whitestar

Sounds like an episode Magnum P.I. and some drug smugglers. Lame ending thou....I want to see blood and a quite hilarious punchline

@OldeEnglishD: Yes the name Telsa invites bad Karma.

I smell blood in the water. Rising up, bobbing in classic Brian Jones fashion, Tesla Motors: dead too soon, throttled by its own fame.

@Isetta: Well played sir, well played.

@Isetta: Hiyoooooooooooooooo

What can a body designer actually "sabotage"? Did he design spontaneously combusting body panels?

Sounds like corporate BS to me..

So this is how liberty dies? With the quiet whirrrr of an electric motor . . .

I said it once before on this board, but I feel that Tesla isn't long for this world. Transmission troubles, manufacturing issues, outrageous pricing, borrowed technology.... and now legal issues..... say goodnight.

Oh, and as for Fisker, they shall also perish.

Fisker copying Bill Gates. That is sound business practice there fellas.

- Fisker had done work for Tesla at their studio in Huntington Beach.

- a great deal of the Whitestar is Ford Fusion based

- Fisker is shopping around to do their car at a Detroit engineering firm which is still TBD

- the Chevy Volt will not be sold before Ford comes up with a car in the same market.

- could that car be the remnants of the Whitestar?

Didn't Tesla See the Signs?

Signs Signs, everywhere there signs
Blockin up the scenery breakin my mind
Do this, don't do that can't you read the signs Tesla????

Which ever company gets product out first should just buy the other. If fisker really stole designs, it wouldn't be to hard to slap a tesla logo on it, or put a fisker body on the tesla roadster.

If the design was substandard then it would be unusable. I can imagine that Fisker intentionally made a weak design, so their car would kill it in competition. I would imagine that a bad design would be completely unusable, you can't use half a design...

Headline of the Month!

@Racingindrag:
Sabatoge in this case means that Tesla suspected that Fisker intentionally did a substandard design for the Whitestar before going on to make his hybrid. It's more clear in the article what they are suing for.

@dolo54:
"I can imagine that Fisker intentionally made a weak design, so their car would kill it in competition."
This is what I'm trying to explain, and it's also an answer to the people asking why Tesla didn't just go with Fisker's design. Tesla probably saw Fisker's Karma and said WTF, how come this design is so much better than the one he made for us, and decided that they needed a new design that was better than the Karma if they wanted to beat the competition. I think the bit about Fisker not ever being experienced in hybrids was to show that Tesla had no way to know that is was going to happen, b/c they had no idea that Fisker was going to make a competing vehicle.

Found a link to an original scoop early in May 2007 of Fisker designing the Whitestar:
[www.autospies.com]
We know news of Fisker's hybrid only came later in the year, near October. So obviously Tesla had no idea of this conflict of interest.

There are a few very suspicious and valid points too. For example why would an auto designer like Fisker who penned many high-powered sports coupes like Aston Martins, the Z8, and runs a company that makes converted Mercedes and BMW high-powered sports coupes all of the sudden decided to make an electrically driven SERIES HYBRID SEDAN. Could it just be coincidence that Fisker just HAPPENED to plan to release this type of vehicle after he designed the Whitestar?

"We know news of Fisker's hybrid only came later in the year, near October."
Actually the news that they would build a "plug-in vehicle" came a little earlier on September, [jalopnik.com]
The actual design details (like the fact the vehicle will be a sedan, or that it will be a series hybrid, which is obviously much more similar to a full EV, and how it will look) came in late October to early November.

that designer guy's a theif, he has no imagination, the Artega GT is a Porsche Carrera GT, only smaller, The Lamonta is a DB9 (which he design along with ford's best folk), and the karma is going to be a huge flop because it's so wierd looking and they're gonna have no money if they're getting sued

I need to check the rates I charge for design. And get better clients. $875,000 for a substandard design? I have trouble getting someone to pay me $1K for a damn branding.