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NOTEBOOK – One Good Read:Nikola v. Tesla: A tale of two companies

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With two motor companies named after a brilliantly odd man, a lawsuit was bound to happen, wasn’t it? Just after Tesla CEO Elon Musk was panned for snubbing Wall Street analysts in an earnings call, the Hustle popped up announcing Nikola Motor Co.’s $2 billion lawsuit against Tesla, alleging patent infringement over a hydrogen-electric semi truck. It’s not just the use of a wraparound windshield design — the fuselage and the fender design that Nikola alleges was stolen — the lawsuit claims that Tesla tried to recruit Nikola’s Chief Engineer Kevin Lynk to join a truck development team four months after Nikola published its initial Nikola One semi truck design. There’s a copy of the lawsuit available here, and take a look at the side-by-side comparisons of the Nikola One truck and the Tesla Semi (Page 4). Hmmm.