Chery Automobile said yesterday that it could not comment on a lawsuit filed by its estranged United States partner because it had not yet been served with legal papers, which were filed in Detroit.
Chery is being sued by Visionary Vehicles, its one-time joint venture partner, which charged the Anhui-based car company with 'corrupt practices', alleging it stole proprietary information while the two firms were planning to export mainland cars to the US.
The lawsuit claims that Chery convinced a Visionary employee to provide Chery with confidential business plans. The suit also alleges that Chery used its joint-venture agreement with Visionary as leverage to gain better deals to build cars for export with Chrysler and Quantum.
Jin Yibo, administration office director of Chery, said the company had not had any communications with Visionary or its founder Malcolm Bricklin about the dispute. 'We can't respond to the issue in detail because we're only being informed through news reports.'
Mr Bricklin announced plans in 2005 that it would help import 250,000 Chery cars by as early as last year through their joint venture. The parties also intended to develop five low-cost cars.
However, in November 2006, Visionary said Chery was not moving fast enough and the export agreement had to be scrapped.
