Former CEO goes after Tesla, Musk

Martin Eberhard wants his second Roadster and his title back as the “founder” of Tesla Motors.

The former founder and CEO of Tesla filed a lawsuit against the electric automaker and current CEO Elon Musk for slander, libel, breach of contract and other complaints. The suit was filed May 26 with the Superior Court of San Mateo County, Calif.

Ze’ev Drori, former head of auto security systems company Clifford Electronics, took over for Eberhard in 2007 and was succeeded by Musk in 2008 (see Eberhard out, Drori in at Tesla)

Eberhard’s main grudge seems to be surrounding the way he was “pushed out of the company he founded” and how Musk has apparently “set out to re-write history” and take ownership of the idea behind Tesla Motors by "denigrating" Eberhard’s contributions. The court document offers a behind-the-scene glimpse of the turmoil between the two executives. The suit states:

“Musk has persistently and continuously made defamatory, disparaging, negative and harmful statements about Eberhard within Tesla Motors and in public forums such as electronic media, newspapers, websites and blogs.”

Musk has made statements portraying himself as the “founder” of Tesla, when Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning actually founded the company in 2002. The lawsuit cites a long list of media instances where Tesla Motors and Musk have not attempted to correct or properly credit Eberhard as Tesla’s founder.

Just wondering why Tarpenning hasn’t seemed to hold the same grudge?

The document also cites Musk of wrongly accusing Eberhard of being responsible for the Roadster’s production delays and for Tesla’s financial instability (see Tesla CEO says carmaker is bouncing back and Tesla Motors on an upswing?)

The lawsuit gets juicier. Tesla apparently wrecked Eberhard’s personal historic Roadster before it was delivered to him, so he wanted the second one off the production line. But Musk’s friend got the one-of-a-kind car instead. So Telsa finally ponies up a Roadster for Eberhard, which he had paid $100,000 for, and it arrives on his doorstep smashed after an “endurance test.” He might want to wait for another one until Tesla works out the kinks (see Tesla recall: Good for the electric car industry?)

Oh, and Eberhard is also asking for his severance pay and stock options. Tesla Motors has a complete counter view of the whole mess and plans to file counter claims.

Eberhard is seeking damages from a jury trial, but I’m thinking the whole thing could get dismissed like Tesla’s nasty lawsuit against Fisker in December (see Can't we all just get along?).