April 16, 2008 - Competition in the electric-vehicle market is heating up. Tesla Motors, maker of the Tesla Roadster all-electric sport vehicle, has filed a lawsuit claiming a well-known automotive designer stole the company's trade secrets to set up his own rival shop, Reuters reports.

The suit charges that Henrik Fisker, hired by Tesla to design the body and interior for its new WhiteStar electric-hybrid sedan, is using confidential business information and engineering data provided by the company to design a similar vehicle for his own venture, the  newly formed Fisker Automotive. Both Fisker and his business partner, Bernhard Koehler, are named in the suit.

Tesla charges that Fisker submitted substandard designs for the WhiteStar, which resulted in production delays, and that he witheld his best designs for his rival electric-hybrid sedan, called the Karma. The automaker is seeking to prevent Fisker from using its trade secrets and calls for compensation due to lost profits as well as unspecified punitive damages.