An attempt to electrify the iconic DeLorean ran into trouble. Earlier this month, electric vehicle maker Karma Automotive filed a lawsuit against US-based DeLorean Motors Reimagined, which owns the brand rights to the original DeLorean Motor Company (DMC), and four of its employees, accusing them of stealing intellectual property.
Karma claims that DeLorean Motors Reimagined only exists because a joint venture between the two failed. In a lawsuit filed Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Karma alleges that four DeLorean Motors Reimagined employees — CEO Joost de Vries, COO Alan Yuan, vice president Neilo Harris and chief marketing officer Troy Beetz — stole the facilities. trade secrets used to launch DeLorean Motors Reimagined. The company said it plans to sell electric versions of the revived 1980s sports car.
The lawsuit alleges that negotiations between Karma and DMC began in 2020 to “electrify the iconic DeLorean DMC car that would help both companies propel themselves into the future at 88 mph.” (This is a reference to the 1985 film Back to the Future, which featured a DeLorean time machine.) But the joint venture failed, and the defendants left the project, along with Karma’s confidential information, to form their own venture.
“They stealthily took Karma’s confidential information, materials and mock-ups,” the lawsuit says. “They actively withheld information from Karma in order to prevent Karma from continuing the project or finding out what individual defendants were up to. Then, one by one, they left Karma.”
However, de Vries stated that the Karma/DMC joint project “died due to Karma’s inability to finance or produce the results necessary to even advance negotiations with the DMC.” He added that DeLorean Motors Reimagined is a brand new company with a brand new all electric car project, unrelated to the low volume copy project.
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This is not Karma’s first lawsuit. Two years ago, the company sued Ohio-based Lordstown Motors, alleging that the electric truck firm stole its trade secrets and poached its infotainment technology employees.
The DeLorean returns as a state-of-the-art Alpha 5 electric coupe with a gullwing door, 500 km on a single charge and a top speed of 240 km/h
Source: The Verge
