Tesla's website seemingly copied by rival Chinese EV maker

You know what they say. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Yet, when it comes to companies and their intellectual property, things can get sticky quickly.

As for Chinese electric car startup Xpeng, it's taken imitation to nearly the highest level. The firm's website now looks almost identical to Tesla's own website, Electrek first reported late last month. The layout is almost Tesla's to a T: the car, buttons, stats and other elements sit in nearly identical areas. Even the font is similar.

As of this morning, it looks like Xpeng made a few changes to make its site a little less of a copycat, but the previous design showed the brand's P7 in a photo very similar to the Tesla Model S on the California-based firm's website. It'd be easy to chalk this up to the aforementioned flattery, but Xpeng has a track record of allegedly poaching Tesla's stuff.

In fact, the two remain embroiled in a lawsuit Tesla filed against Xpeng after the former accused the Chinese company of stealing source code for Tesla's Autopilot system. Xpeng sells a similar feature called "Xpilot." Tesla alleges a former employee, Guangzhi Cao, stole the information and sold it to Xpeng when he began working at the Chinese company. Cao has denied all accusations.