Tesla founder sues Tesla, Elon Musk

Tesla's done a good job keeping itself out of the courtroom recently, but the good times don't last forever -- founder Martin Eberhard has just sued the company and CEO Elon Musk for libel, slander, and breach of contract. Eberhard claims that after he and Mark Tapenning founded Tesla, he was summarily pushed out of the company by Musk, wrongfully denied his severance package, and then disparaged both publicly and within the company -- and on top of it all, Musk sent the second Roadster produced out for "endurance testing" where it was wrecked instead being sold to Eberhard as promised. Ouch. Interestingly, the core of the lawsuit directly mirrors the suit filed former PR director David Vespremi over the same series of events, so it seems like there's a pattern here, but we'll see how much of this is true when Tesla and Eberhard face off in the courtroom -- our friends at Autoblog Green just received this statement from legendarily-prickly Tesla PR spokesperson Rachel Konrad:

This lawsuit is a fictionalized, inaccurate account of Tesla's early years -- it's twisted and wrong, and we welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. Incidentally, Tesla will also be filing counterclaims and in the process present an accurate account of the company's history.

Yeah, we'd say there are some fireworks brewing. Stay tuned.

Read - Autoblog Green
Read - Wired
Read - Eberhard's complaint [Warning: PDF]

[lakersin2025 @ Jun 11th 2009 11:57AM]

Does the Tesla time travel or does that dude in the photo just think that he is in the early 1990's?

[General_Trelane, (retired) @ Jun 11th 2009 12:01PM]

Not possible, please see explanation below.
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from Tesla press release;
"The battery pack stores 53 kilowatt hours of electric energy"

and as we all know, it takes 1.21 Jiggawatts to activate a Flux Capacitor... so no only a nuclear powered car such as the DMC Delorean can time travel.

[General_Trelane, (retired) @ Jun 11th 2009 12:02PM]

Whoa! nice Rack!

[Mike Vaia @ Jun 11th 2009 12:10PM]

I'd wait until they go into production and buy one outright... then run that Elon piece of shit over with it in the middle of the street.

[mian @ Jun 11th 2009 2:11PM]

Ugliest car model, evar.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jun 11th 2009 5:08PM]

For wearing jeans and a polo?

[General_Trelane, (retired) @ Jun 11th 2009 11:57AM]

Someone wants to get into the big leagues, so all that sharing, love and co-operation when it was a start up has now turned to backstabbing and manipulation of control.

I see someone is probably going to try and sell this company off to one of the small 3 for a nice bit of change...

Ahh human greed.

[Xenoterranos @ Jun 11th 2009 12:14PM]

No kidding. Why are so many of the good startups poisoned by A-type A-holes who take it as their personal crusade to defecate on all that has potential. If all that is said of this Musk is true, they really need to get his dick-waving preoccupied self the hell out of there, and start making the making of cars priority one. The Tesla's hanging on by a thread as it is with all the trouble and delays they've had.

[MegaBite @ Jun 11th 2009 1:54PM]

small 3?

[ThreeDee912 @ Jun 11th 2009 5:29PM]

Basically: This is why we can't have nice things.

[Salman Anjum @ Jun 11th 2009 11:58AM]

everyones gonna hate me but i hope Tesla gets sued so much they go bankrupt, i cant stand that Elon Musk guy, hes such a idiot and fraudster (although he has some time to catch up with the Gizmondo CEO)

[sip @ Jun 11th 2009 12:03PM]

Ummm, then why don't you just hope he gets fired instead of having an entire revolutionary company go down?

[Salman Anjum @ Jun 11th 2009 12:14PM]

i dont like the PR girl either and they're totally ripping off the Nikola Tesla name. but now that you mention it, it would make more sense just to fire Musk. I retract my last statement and say "Down with cheap Musks"

[In A World (XBL) @ Jun 11th 2009 3:28PM]

"they're totally ripping off the Nikola Tesla name"

**FOREHEAD SMACK**

Do you understand what an homage is?

[Salman Anjum @ Jun 11th 2009 4:02PM]

um yeah i do know what a homage is but i mean that whenever someone says Tesla you think of this company with the idiotic ceo instead of the scientist. now please post your childish insults elsewhere *forehead smack"

[lens42 @ Jun 11th 2009 7:39PM]

You mean they think of the lunatic CEO instead of the lunatic scientist?

[Salman Anjum @ Jun 11th 2009 8:02PM]

ha ha yes i do mean they think of a lunatic ceo instead of a lunatic scientist. although i think we can describe elon better than lunatic, much frutier words come to mind. i think the most common is something that rhymes with "tanker"

[chanmanplanet @ Jun 11th 2009 11:58AM]

let me know when their full electric car runs 9000!!! mi per charge b/c 130mi & 300mi is not gonna cut it for the price that's more expensive than a Prius 3rd Gen

[Kamil @ Jun 11th 2009 12:12PM]

OVER 9000?!?!

[GirTheRobot @ Jun 11th 2009 12:47PM]

300 miles is fine, but it better recharge as fast as I can refuel my current car, I go on roadtrips regularly and one of the EV pieces of shit won't cut it there.

Either get me 3000 miles to a charge, or a 30 second recharge, otherwise I got no use for your piles of crap. I'm all for alternate fuel, and cleaning up the earth, but there is a -reason- the cars we have have been so successful, they deliver on everything we NEED. That's why Hydrogen Fuel cells are the answer, they can be refueled every bit as quickly and have a much greater range.

[Ignatius @ Jun 11th 2009 3:10PM]

3000 miles to a charge?

Holy crap. Even gas cars don't get 500 miles to a tank. You understand that the Roadster has a 53kWh battery that gets about 250-300 miles per charge. To get that, you would have to have a 500+kWh battery.

Those 53kWh of battery weigh approximately 992 pounds, so rounding that up to 1000 for easy measurement, your new electric car would weigh approximately, oh, let's say... FIVE AND A HALF TONS. The Hummer H2 only weighs 3 and a quarter tons.

[Patriks7 @ Jun 11th 2009 3:30PM]

"but there is a -reason- the cars we have have been so successful,"
You mean so successful at polluting? Yeah, I give you that.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jun 11th 2009 5:09PM]

Yeah, but the Prius is a horrid piece of crap to drive, while the Tesla is actually FUN.

[lens42 @ Jun 11th 2009 7:46PM]

Get used to "horrid pieces of crap to drive". Without free energy, which ain't gonna happen, you can soon forget about driving cars that push you into your seat back when you depress the pedal, whether they run on gas, electrons, or whatever. The rest of the world learned this a long ago, and it's coming here too. Driving 4000 lb, 300 HP vehicles to get one person to work makes zero sense. Even a Prius is overpowered.

[Warren @ Jun 11th 2009 12:14PM]

I hope these spoiled-ass, millionaire idiots don't fuck up the good thing Tesla has going.

[Dave @ Jun 12th 2009 10:45AM]

You would be surprised; many of these “millionaire” types got lucky once, but are now so highly leveraged out that it is making them nervous. And when people get scared- they get stupid and become “Type-a, A-holes” as someone put it.

I don’t think Tesla is so promising; they have forgotten the simple truth that if you can produce what people want, at a price they will pay- then you make money and everyone is happy.

Conversely, if you spend your time trying to get something for nothing- you become a subject of disgust and unpleasant language.

[whatishalo? @ Jun 11th 2009 12:25PM]

Someone should tell Tesla that if they don't get their heads out of their as@#es and get it to market, no one will give a damn when they finally do because every other car company will have an EV on the market!

[JeffM @ Jun 11th 2009 1:24PM]

Get what to market? Their cars? Which one, because I don't know where you live but I see the Tesla roadster pretty frequently- at least once a week.

[dabrown27 @ Jun 11th 2009 1:37PM]

Unless I missed out on some sarcasm, where do YOU live????

[JeffM @ Jun 11th 2009 2:08PM]

Silicon Valley - these are $100k+ cars- you're not going to see them everywhere, but there are really quite a few running around in the SF Bay Area. My guess would be the intersection of people with a lot of money and the social appeal of fast and "environmentally" friendly.

[MeanSpyvie @ Jun 11th 2009 2:51PM]

My guess is you're seeing Lotus and thinking Tesla... in short, you're clueless

[MeanSpyvie @ Jun 11th 2009 2:59PM]

Looks like there have been 500 Teslas delivered nationwide.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/09/convoy-of-tesla-roadsters-in-california-commemorates-500th-deliv/

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jun 11th 2009 5:32PM]

MeanSpyvie,

You sure live up to your name. I see Teslas every at least once a week, but then again, they are headquartered right down the road in San Carlos, and I drive by the Menlo Park dealer all the time... but many of the cars I see don't have dealer plates.

[Peter @ Jun 11th 2009 12:28PM]

Shit, didn't this same crap happen to Steve 'boom' Jobs?

I'm pitching to some VC's in a month or so and, being a creative/inventor type rather than a biz type, i just know i'm gonna taken for a screwing somewhere down the line.

I'll probably twitter an update on how royally i got screwed in a year or so as i actually plummet from the Golden Gate bridge so be understanding if the tweet ends abruptly.

[CraigJ @ Jun 11th 2009 12:31PM]

A good attorney. Hire one.

[Frankenstein Black @ Jun 11th 2009 12:28PM]

Hey Martin, you can't invite a Vampire in and expect him not to bite! You should have told Elon the Impaler to keep his money!

PS I get Douche chills every time I see him (Elon) on some TV show crowing about "his creation". A vampire that suckles you and then claims your home as his own is doubly insulting. Hey Elon the phrase is WE & US not I & MEEEEEEE!

[HeeHaw @ Jun 11th 2009 12:38PM]

No one files a lawsuit like this unless there's some merit to it. If this is the second account of very similar event's, then perhaps there's some behind it. If Tesla does have a bad egg at the top it's best for everyone if he is removed before he ruins the company.

[aaron @ Jun 11th 2009 12:34PM]

I'll take him, we can start a new company.

/ginvite Martin Eberhard

[Ed T @ Jun 11th 2009 12:42PM]

Wow, maybe there is a future for Tesla after all. Lawyers usually don't get involved in a food fight like this unless they smell big money.

[OSnix*-geek @ Jun 11th 2009 12:45PM]

IMHO, and experience. Startups no matter big or small, are full of adult cry-baby's. On both sides of the fence. Ones that don't like when there ideas aren't agreed with, and ones that feel like the only thing that will make them feel better is to sue the pants off of each other.

I recently worked for a startup, and the only fucking thing I got out of it was STOCK. The company is still worth NOTHING! I had to pull back, the company just fired there CEO, who was making progress with the company, and they weren't growing at ANY rate, on ANY front. The founder, and cry-baby, basically threatened to take my stock unless I stayed working for them FOR NOTHING. Needless to say no putz, except for me, was willing to do the work for NOTHING, they had to pay some half-capable-amateur, to do a half-ass job.

I also worked for a startup in the dot-bomb days. When I started working for them (they actually paid me btw), there were only 3 full-time employees, when they finally busted, they had 50+ employees, and a giant warehouse. They exploded too quickly, and also things were getting personal, and people weren't actually doing work. It was insane.

[ntenney @ Jun 11th 2009 12:54PM]

This kind of thing plays out occasionally with VC's. Back in 2000 when I was getting ready to graduate from College, this exact scenario happened to a great little company called Ars Digita. The company was profitable, but the founder had some ambitious expansion plans, and so brought a VC on to help fund the expansion. Within about 6 months, he was ousted from the company, and the VC's made it an awful place to work. Anytime you start looking for VC funds, you really need to look closely at how the VC has worked with other small businesses, and then weigh the risk that they might just decide to take over.

[To: Hell @ Jun 11th 2009 12:50PM]

I think Letterman should go down there and knock some heads around.

[Eyhk @ Jun 11th 2009 1:01PM]

Always the business men coming in and outseating the engineers with the original idea, screwing them over, and taking over the company. Kinda pathetic really.

[sr @ Jun 11th 2009 1:46PM]

Yes it's true, but the problem with engineer types is that they have so much contempt for the skills and ways of business that they have no idea how to run a business and make it profitable. The ones who take a business course/MBA are the smart ones.

[V35_Pilot @ Jun 11th 2009 1:16PM]

At some point this company will perhaps become more mainstream, but until then every time I read the name, "Tesla," in the news I first think of that early 90s band.

[Wicker24 @ Jun 11th 2009 1:56PM]

Mid 80's.

[Kevin @ Jun 11th 2009 1:31PM]

blah

[MegaBite @ Jun 11th 2009 1:59PM]

If I founded a company like that, I would make sure to hold on to 51% of the stock shares.

[bobmarley101 @ Jun 11th 2009 2:08PM]

Wooo I saw him and the pictured car (or a similar-looking guy in a similar-looking tesla) on the way home from the gym today.

[jon.marcus @ Jun 11th 2009 4:25PM]

Drama.