Chinese EV startup accuses Tesla of 'bullying' over IP lawsuit

US company alleges engineer who moved to Xpeng stole source code

20200430 Caixin Xpeng RTX7A2OY

Visitors at the Guangzhou auto show examine XPeng's P7 sedan model in November.  © Reuters

ISABELLE LI and LIU YUKUN, Caixin

Chinese electric vehicle startup Xpeng Motors accused Tesla Inc. of being a bully, firing the latest legal salvo in the companies' ongoing battle over alleged intellectual property theft.

Tesla earlier this year asked a U.S. federal judge to grant it access to Xpeng's company files -- including those on the company chairman's own computer -- as part of its yearlong lawsuit against an engineer who departed the U.S. giant in January 2019 and returned to China two months later to work for the Guangzhou-based carmaker.

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