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Tesla Inc. is being sued for more than $2 billion by electric-hydrogen truck startup Nikola Motor Co., which is claiming its patents were infringed.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Arizona, Nikola claims Tesla copied the design of its big rigs, which Nikola first unveiled in May 2016.
According to a court filing, in early November 2017, Nikola sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tesla pointing out features on the electric Tesla Semi that resembled features on its own semi trucks — including the wraparound windshield, mid-entry door and aerodynamic fuselage — and demanded Tesla delay the public unveiling of the Semi until the infringement issues were settled. Tesla did not respond, the filing said, and Elon Musk unveiled the truck at an event in Hawthorne, Calif., on Nov. 16.
Nikola said the introduction of Tesla’s truck has caused “confusion in the market” and hurt its ability to attract investors and partners, and the company is seeking damages “in excess of $2 billion” — roughly the jump in Tesla’s market cap after it unveiled the Semi.
“It’s patently obvious there is no merit to this lawsuit,” a Tesla spokesperson said Tuesday night.
Tesla’s Semis made their first cargo deliveries in March, but mass production is not expected to begin until 2019, with the first deliveries coming in 2020. A number of major companies, including UPS Inc. , PepsiCo Inc. and Walmart Inc. have already placed pre-orders.
In January, Nikola announced plans to build a $1 billion factory in Arizona. At the time it claimed to have more than 8,000 pre-orders for its hydrogen fuel-cell electric semi trucks, and expects to begin production in 2021.
Nikola and Tesla have feuded before, and the companies’ names are based on the same inventor — Nikola Tesla.
Tesla is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings Wednesday after the closing bell.