Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in the talks to settle a lawsuit with an electric car battery maker, who accused the iPhone maker, reportedly in process of developing an electric car of own, of luring its key engineers.
Apple demands more time
The electric battery maker A123 Systems filed a lawsuit last month in Massachusetts federal court against Apple. The lawsuit claims that the tech firm conducted “aggressive” campaign last year to recruit employees, who were performing critical development and testing activities at A123. The lawsuit, also, noted five of the company’s former employees now work at Apple. In the lawsuit, A123 also accused five of its former employees for breaching nondisclosure agreements.
In the lawsuit, A123 noted that Apple is also poaching battery engineers from other firms such as LG Chem Ltd, Samsung SDI Co Ltd, Panasonic Corp, Toshiba Corp and Johnson Controls Inc.
In response to the lawsuit, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) filed a motion on Tuesday, where it demanded more time to respond to the claims. The motion noted that they need time for “exploring potential resolution of this matter with plaintiff.”
More evidence of Apple working on electric car
A123 Systems is primarily engage in the development of energy storage systems for commercial and industrial applications, including “advanced energy storage for electric-drive vehicles.” The company noted in the lawsuit that Apple is in process of developing a large scale battery division.
Since last month, there have been speculations that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is forming a team with an objective to design an electric car to take on Tesla and others. As per a recent report from Bloomberg, Apple is asking its development team to get the car ready for production by 2024. Apple’s new team is expected to have around 200 members, and include experts from various fields such as batteries and robotics, according to the Bloomberg.
Overall, it can be said that the lawsuit, further strengthens the recent speculations that the iPhone maker is aiming to develop an electric car.
As of now, there are no comments from both the companies over the lawsuit.
