Two former General Motors’ workers was accused of stealing secret documents on hybrid technology worth $40 million. Prosecution of Detroit reported that Shanshan Du (51) and her husband Yu Qin (49) copied documents in 2005, five days after the automaker had offered her a severance agreement. They contacted with Chinese Chery in order to sell secret documents through a small company they owned called Millenium Technology International. After that, Qin applied for jobs as a hybrid engineer, claiming on his resume that he had invented some of the stolen GM technology, prosecutors say - according to Reuters.

For such serious allegations (but not direct) Chery spokesman said immediately. "We didn’t know anything about this case until we have heard about it in the media" - said in an telephone interview for Reuters, Jin Yibo. - This is a strange thing for us and still we don’t understand why Chery is connected with it - explained Yibo. The Chery official statement ensures that it always respected the principles of "intellectual property" and has worked on the new, eco-drive drive since 2001.

The company has prepared a production version of A5 ISG model which will use 1.3 petrol engine and small 12 kW electric motor, but without capability to drive itself. In addition, the car is equipped with start-stop system which turns on the engine over the 200 ms. The manufacturer says that the new technology enables savings 15% of fuel.

Hybrid cars new hit of Chinese export?

It is worth to remember, that it isn’t the first dispute between of two companies, because GM accused Chery of copying Matiz (model QQ) already in 2005. The controversial case led to a gentleman's agreement between the parties and Chery resigned from plans to sale the QQ in the USA. "There is no chance that either these cars were sold outside of China interfering in our business" - said the GM spokesman in the past.

After five years, these words are completely obsolete, because QQ is successfully selling in Eastern Europe. Maybe a copy of the Matiz will be produce in Warsaw FSO soon. We will see, if American concern will intervene in this case too…

Source: Reuters
Source: Autochiny

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