The Company Suing Apple Made Batteries for a Crappy Tesla Knockoff

​A123 is an electric vehicle battery manufacturer that has been blamed for the demise of an ill-fated Tesla rival. Now, it's suing Apple, claiming the company is stealing entire divisions of its employees in order to form a similar business.

It's the latest signal suggesting that Apple is not-so-subtly getting into the electric or autonomous vehicle space, a ​development first rumored last week. Those who watch Apple's every move are no doubt hoping that all these smoke signals will eventually result in some fire, in the way of concrete court documents discussing Tim Cook's plans.

There's a long history of poaching in the tech industry, with noncompete clauses and nondisclosure agreements par-for-the-course in employee hiring contracts. That doesn't stop companies from trying to hire the best talent from rivals, however. Facebook, Apple, and Google ​have notably traded employees back and forth many times over the years.

But employee poaching lawsuits rarely go anywhere, and are often settled out of court, probably precisely for this reason. A123 alleges in its lawsuit that Apple is "systematically hiring away A123's high tech PhD and engineering employees, thereby effectively shutting down various projects/programs at A123. They are doing so in an effort to support Apple's apparent plans to establish a battery division that is similar if not identical to A123."

Since June of last year, Apple has allegedly hired five employees away from A123, all of them high level engineers and all of them working on lithium ion batteries. A123 claims that it has proof that the team is structured in much the same way as they were at the Michigan battery manufacturer.

The poached workers are ​probably very capable engineers, but it's worth noting that A123 ​has very publicly been blamed—rightly ​or wrongly—by Fisker, a would-be Tesla competitor that relied on A123 for its plug-in hybrid car failure.

A123 filed for bankruptcy in 2013 (it was rescued by a Chinese company) and was forced to recall batteries used in the Fisker Karma. Only 2,450 Karmas were ever built, and the car has since been viewed as a colossal failure.

"Because we have no batteries, there's no production right now. Inventory is starting to get a little low," Fisker Chief Executive Officer Tony Posawatz told Bloomberg News in November of 2013.

Consumer Reports ​slammed the Karma in its review, saying that a faulty battery caused it to shut down while it was being driven. A123 has also been blamed for many delays in the Karma's initial launch and its poor reception.

It's worth keeping in mind that Fisker was trying to cover its own ass with those allegations, but maybe it's worth wondering what Apple's actually getting here.

If A123's employees don't work out, however, ​there's always the 50-or-so workers Apple has allegedly hired from Tesla. At the very least, this lawsuit is going to give Apple watchers something to do: The case has been given a "fast track" to a hearing and is expected to be heard over the next couple of months.

Apple Lawsuit