Did Daimler Zap Zap?
You may recall that electric car maker Zap was set to import thousands of Smart cars into the U.S., after [what was then called] DaimlerChrysler decided to pull the plug on its own American ambitions for the brand in 2004. Now that [what is now called] Daimler has changed its mind and teamed-up with Penske to get Smart stateside, Zap is plenty pissed, in a "we're going to sue your ass" kinda way. They've filed a $500m suit against Daimler in California, alleging "intentional interference with prospective economic relations; negligent interference; trade libel; defamation; breach of contract to negotiate in good faith; breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing; common law unfair competition and statutory unfair competition." In papers filed with the court, ZAP claims it collected $2.2b worth of signed purchase orders for some 156k Smarts. The legal action, first filed two years ago, stumbled when a CA court claimed it had no jurisdiction in the matter. WardsAuto reports that Zap will learn if their efforts to reverse that decision have been successful in the next 90 days.
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Zap will do anything for attention. It is the automotive world's equivalent of a two-year-old's tantrum.
DCX never had a signed contract with Zap. Zap's plan was to buy cars in Europe and modify them for the US market but was prohibited from buying them new for reasons I can't recall.
Instead, they had to buy them used, not that Zap has ever had much money to begin with.
156k as in One hundred and fifty six Thousand Zap/Smarts? thats a hell of a lot of cars for anyone to sell let alone someone who isn't/hasn't made a single one.