Several DeLorean executives are being sued by their former employer Karma Automotive for pursuing an outside venture while being told to find investors for electric vehicle development. Karma filed a lawsuit last month against DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries, Chief Operating Officer Alan Yuan, Chief Marketing Officer Troy Beetz, and Vice President Neilo Harris, who all maintained they were allowed to establish a new company as needed.
Karma claims in the suit, filed in August, that it told de Vries and Yuan to look for outside investors when they were employed at the company. When developing the “Project 88” — an internal name for the project — electric vehicle, Karma did not have the necessary funding to move forward. de Vries and Yuan had their contracts slightly tweaked in January 2021, according to San Antonio Express-News, which allowed the two executives to “pursue investors outside Karma Automotive” and “set up a new business structure as needed.”
Karma began exploring a venture in 2020 that would see the DeLorean brand reignited under Karma’s EV tech. Karma claims de Vries, Yuan, Beetz, and Harris went and secretly formed the venture on their own and did so without expressed permission.
DeLorean reiterated this in a filing, stating that Karma’s contract revisions “modified any agreements it had with the Individual Defendants expressly to allow them to pursue Project 88 as a separate business, including to engage with suppliers and investors and to establish an independent business structure.”
Karma accuses the four of creating the new DeLorean without any permission or knowledge on Karma’s behalf. They also accuse them of telling potential investors that the project would not include Karma. Yuan’s revised contract states the vehicle in development would “utilize Karma’s vehicle platform, engineering, and manufacturing services.”
Credit: DeLorean
Additionally, the suit accuses both de Vries and Beetz of emailing battery data, vehicle dimensions, and other data to personal email accounts while still employed by Karma.
DeLorean specified in a filing that Karma did not list which trade secrets were explicitly taken that contributed to the development of the Alpha5, which was unveiled during the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August. However, Karma did list examples of intellectual property in the suit, as well as consumer information, vehicle specifications, and accounting information.
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Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
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Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
Tesla plans to supply over 100 Megapack units to support a large stationary storage project in Japan, making it one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities.
Tesla’s Megapack grid-scale batteries have been selected to back an energy storage project in Japan, coming as the latest of the company’s continued deployment of the hardware.
As detailed in a report from Nikkei this week, Tesla plans to supply 142 Megapack units to support a 548 MWh storage project in Japan, set to become one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities. The project is being overseen by financial firm Orix, and it will be located at a facility Maibara in central Japan’s Shiga prefecture, and it aims to come online in early 2027.
The deal is just the latest of several Megapack deployments over the past few years, as the company continues to ramp production of the units. Tesla currently produces the Megapack at a facility in Lathrop, California, though the company also recently completed construction on its second so-called “Megafactory” in Shanghai China and is expected to begin production in the coming weeks.
READ MORE ON TESLA MEGAPACKS: Tesla Megapacks help power battery supplier Panasonic’s Kyoto test site
Tesla’s production of the Megapack has been ramping up at the Lathrop facility since initially opening in 2022, and both this site and the Shanghai Megafactory are aiming to eventually reach a volume production of 10,000 Megapack units per year. The company surpassed its 10,000th Megapack unit produced at Lathrop in November.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last week, CEO Elon Musk also said that the company is looking to construct a third Megafactory, though he did not disclose where.
Last year, Tesla Energy also had record deployments of its Megapack and Powerwall home batteries with a total of 31.4 GWh of energy products deployed for a 114-percent increase from 2023.
Other recently deployed or announced Megapack projects include a massive 600 MW/1,600 MWh facility in Melbourne, a 75 MW/300 MWh energy storage site in Belgium, and a 228 MW/912 MWh storage project in Chile, along with many others still.
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Tesla highlights the Megapack site replacing Hawaii’s last coal plant
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Elon Musk responds to Ontario canceling $100M Starlink deal amid tariff drama
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, opens new tab on February 3 that he was “ripping up” his province’s CA$100 million agreement with Starlink in response to the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
Elon Musk company SpaceX is set to lose a $100 million deal with the Canadian province of Ontario following a response to the Trump administration’s decision to apply 25 percent tariffs to the country.
Starlink, a satellite-based internet service launched by the Musk entity SpaceX, will lose a $100 million deal it had with Ontario, Premier Doug Ford announced today.
Starting today and until U.S. tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts.
Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario. U.S.-based businesses will…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Ford said on X today that Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts:
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy. Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it.”
It is a blow to the citizens of the province more than anything, as the Starlink internet constellation has provided people in rural areas across the globe stable and reliable access for several years.
Musk responded in simple terms, stating, “Oh well.”
Oh well https://t.co/1jpMu55T6s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
It seems Musk is less than enthused about the fact that Starlink is being eliminated from the province, but it does not seem like all that big of a blow either.
As previously mentioned, this impacts citizens more than Starlink itself, which has established itself as a main player in reliable internet access. Starlink has signed several contracts with various airlines and maritime companies.
It is also expanding to new territories across the globe on an almost daily basis.
With Mexico already working to avoid the tariff situation with the United States, it will be interesting to see if Canada does the same.
The two have shared a pleasant relationship, but President Trump is putting his foot down in terms of what comes across the border, which could impact Americans in the short term.
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Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
