User 142738

Strong Work Ethic at BYD, Maker of Electric Cars

About the Foxconn-BYD issue: there was a lawsuit filed in China in 2006 claiming BYD had hired employees from Hon Hai Precision Technology, Ltd. (a Foxconn affiliate) who had supposedly "[stolen] more than 10,000 documents...". To quote the article:

"In June 2006, Hon Hai took BYD to court in Shenzhen, China, saying BYD stole commercial secrets from Foxconn. The Taiwanese company has complained that the mainland court is dragging its feet in the BYD case." (from an AP article titled "Taiwanese tycoon challenges Buffett's investment")

If you recall, in 2005 Malcolm Bricklin, the same person who had brought Subaru and Yugo brands to the U.S., touted Chery as being a reliable automobile maker that whose "QQ" model was in no way similar to the Chevy Spark/Daewoo Matiz. He planned on opening Chery dealerships in the U.S. by 2008. Long story short, crash tests failed, his investment soured, the plans crumbled and he owes his fellow investors a very large amount of money.