Dec 31 1969
Tesla now on the receiving end of a lawsuit, Magna sues for breach of contract
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors
By now we are all aware of the sad saga of Tesla Motors and their quest for a reliable two-speed transmission for the battery powered Roadster. After failing to get the necessary durability from the original gearbox supplied by X-Trac, Tesla turned to Magna to try and create a new unit. That obviously didn’t work out any better, so they tried to design their own before giving up and revising the motor instead and going to a single speed transmission. Unfortunately Magna apparently didn’t take the break-up well and has now resorted to courts for redress.
According to Magna Powertrain’s suit against Tesla, they didn’t get the money they were owed for the design and development work they did. Interestingly, Magna is claiming that they suggested to Tesla as far back as September 2006 that they should go with a single speed unit, but that path wasn’t followed at the time. The suit claims that Tesla had Magna stop work in October 2007 and the Canadian company isn’t taking issue with the cancellation of the program. They aren’t happy about the fact that Tesla is paying them the $5.6 million they say they are owed for work that was done.
To the best of our knowledge none of Tesla’s prospective customers have started litigation yet over the delays and specification changes. If that does happen, things to get ugly for the San Carlos startup. It’s not that prospective customers necessarily have a case against Tesla because it appears that Tesla is letting anyone unhappy with what’s happening cancel their orders. It’s just the distraction and legal costs that could be better spent elsewhere. For Tesla’s other legal case, click here.
[Source: Earth2Tech.com, thanks to Craig for the tip]
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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid