Former employee slaps Tesla with class action suit
Their plate may be filled with churning out Tesla Roadsters and developing the Model S sedan, but Tesla Motors can't seem to get a break from the lawsuits. First there was the tiff with transmission supplier Magna, followed by potential development partner Fisker, and now Tesla is facing a UPDATE: Darryl Siry of Tesla wanted to clear a few things up with the story. To begin with, a judge must certify a lawsuit as class action before it can be deemed as such. That hasn't happened yet. Additionally, the part of the lawsuit filed by David Vespremi that asks for class action status has nothing to do with libel, slander, or defamation. The only part of Vespremi's lawsuit that could be classified as "class" has to do with Tesla's arbitration and non-conciliation clause in his employment agreement.
[Source: San Mateo Court]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Vintage 2:47PM (7/16/2008)
You can sue for getting laid off?
Neat!
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F-owner-CKING 10:18PM (7/16/2008)
Yes. I was a manager at Circuit Cityonce upon a time ago. They laid a bunch of us off, some douchebag sued, I got money from it.
[Yes, I got money, and that guy is still a douchebag, no one liked him.]
chuck 10:17PM (7/16/2008)
Gee, that happens to the D3 almost once a month...
Don 8:15AM (7/17/2008)
And they don't even have a union. It looks to me this company is in serious trouble. I don't think the battery will hold out and Telsa will end up with major lawsuits.
s13hybrid 2:48PM (7/16/2008)
A new car company that may crumble before it has even gotten started.
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Js 2:50PM (7/16/2008)
It's a shame that what started out and still is a great idea, turned into this profit driven and money hungering battle royale. The founder leaves, the supplier sues, the partner is sued and then sues in return, and now an ex-employee sues. Hmm... I'm no lawyer, or business guru for that matter, but something smells fishy.
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JSolo 2:59PM (7/16/2008)
Is the same David Vespremi that wrote Car Hacks and Mods for Dummies? I bet it is.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764571427/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/104-8550284-5715925
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Jeff 9:11AM (7/18/2008)
Yes, it is.
Henry 3:36PM (7/16/2008)
How many people are involved in this suit to necessitate class action status? I'm not a California lawyer but are there really enough ex-employees that individual suits would be impractical? Then again, what would one expect from the 9th circuit?
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bob d 3:51PM (7/16/2008)
I still don't get this project at all. Why would you invest in a 2 seat expensive sports car when the entire idea is to get people out of gas vehicles and into green technology? If the Hybrid Prius were a 2 seat sports car, would it sell like it does today? Ummmm.... No.
The Tesla is a PR stunt that has no practical purpose but to a few Hollywood types trying to get their name into the news.
If they had spent that time, money, and energy into something that the average Joe could use, they would have beaten GM to the punch by YEARS. Can you say "missed opportunity?" Or, was it just "supreme ego?".
TESLA -- Great American ingenuity ruined again by poor understanding of the market.
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Toy Yoda 4:31PM (7/16/2008)
It's extreme egos and missed opportunities. Both. Probably. That's too bad.
Tai 4:40PM (7/16/2008)
bob,
They answered this question a long time ago. If they were to make something similiar to the Prius, they would be losing money off the bat. There's no way a small company like Tesla would survive. Even GM has came out stating that the first generation VOLT will lose money as well.
They had a choice between making something expensive and marking it up quite a bit to create profit or make something for the average Joe and lose money. If you were a small company which would you do?
With that being said, Tesla may still go under. They have produce perhaps 2 cars so far. I wish them the best of luck but I haven't seen them able to deliver what they promise yet.
jake 9:50PM (7/16/2008)
Look at some of the other EV companies, almost no one knows about them b/c they decided to start by making a normal small car. EVs cost a lot of money to make, so either you will lose money outright trying to sell them at normal gasoline car prices or you start with a sports car which allows you some higher premiums, hides the costs of the EV, and gives you free publicity just by the virtue it's an EV sports car.
It's a small startup, even GM is struggling to make their Volt at $40k. The tiny Mitsubishi iMIEV is around $38k unsubsidized. These are large automakers who can afford to take losses and have existing mass production resources to make cheap cars and they can't do. What makes you think it's a good investment to start a company and try to make EVs in the method of the Prius when it's likely impossible to get down to that kind of price without ending up with an NEV or 3 wheeler.
So the strategy is to start with a sports car to generate revenue first and then drive down market. How hard is that to understand?
They made it very clear: next car is a $60k sports sedan (they are already raising money & finalizing the factory location for this); next next car is a $30k car (likely a hatchback).
@Tai
They have at least delivered car #5. By now there should be 12 cars in California finishing final assembly. There are 27 cars in various stages of assembly. Since the founders series is 25 cars, that means they already started on cars for "independent customers". It's just most of the blogs on the internet make it sound like there's only 2 made so far.
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog2/?p=62
Tai 2:04AM (7/17/2008)
@jake,
Thanks for clearing that up.
bob d 4:22PM (7/16/2008)
Seeing as this was mysteriously deleted... a repost.
I still don't get this project at all. Why would you invest in a 2 seat expensive sports car when the entire idea is to get people out of gas vehicles and into green technology? If the Hybrid Prius were a 2 seat sports car, would it sell like it does today? Ummmm.... No.
The Tesla is a PR stunt that has no practical purpose but to a few Hollywood types trying to get their name into the news.
If they had spent that time, money, and energy into something that the average Joe could use, they would have beaten GM to the punch by YEARS. Can you say "missed opportunity?" Or, was it just "supreme ego?".
TESLA -- Great American ingenuity ruined again by poor understanding of the market.
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Eric 4:21PM (7/16/2008)
How about everyone who ever get fired or laid off get together and file a "class-action" lawsuit? Reader Js is right; it's a damn shame.
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pio!pio! 4:23PM (7/16/2008)
I skimmed the legal brief and it goes something like this
1) The dude gets great performance reviews, promotions, etc
2) The company reorgs to cut costs, he gets demoted (but w/o any negative performance reviews) and made a contractor instead of an employee..is assured his stock options are intact
3) He then gets laid off, his manager tells him it's cuz they didn't want to have his stock options vest (not cuz of performance issues).
4) in the PR for the layoff, the CEO says that they laid off the under performing people, not the good people
5) now when he goes for interviews, people think he's a bad worker, can't get a similar job for similar pay anywhere
so i think he is suing for the things that happened in part 3 and 5
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Toy Yoda 4:34PM (7/16/2008)
I guess Tesla stands for:
T)he
E)lectric Car
S)cam and
L)aw Suit
A)ssociation
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Mark 2:02PM (7/18/2008)
Too many wierd things with this company are happening in terms of booting the founder, screwing vendors, suppliers, contractors and employees. Hopefully it crashes and short-circuits (do electric cars burn?) before "Regular Joe" buys them and gets abandoned also down the road. I'd hate to see this thing IPO and see unknowledgeable investors flushed as well...
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Mr. Blake 7:05PM (7/16/2008)
Lay off the strikethroughs.
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