British utility firm Ecotricity claims US electric car maker is trying to take over its motorway sites

Tesla Motors, the luxury electric car maker, has been accused of bullying a UK green energy company and attempting to take over several of its charging stations at crucial sites on the UK motorway network.

The US company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk who was appointed as an electric vehicle tsar to the government by Nick Clegg last year, is planning to open the first part of its 'supercharger' network next month, to tie in with customer deliveries of the right-hand drive version of its latest car, the Model S which costs upwards of £50,000.

But Ecotricity, a UK utility company which builds windfarms and opened an 'electric highway' network of charging points at motorway service stations in 2011, has alleged that Tesla is trying to "smash and grab" around six of its best-located sites.

The utility said that it had entered into a partnership with Tesla three months ago under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to help the US company build a charging network across UK motorways.

Tesla's aim is for its customers to be able to drive its cars – some of which are capable of running up to 300 miles on one charge, much further than most electric cars – across the entire country without running out of power.

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But Ecotricity's founder, Dale Vince, said he had received on Sunday a "very dark", "shocking" and "brutal" email from Tesla informing his company of Tesla's intent to take over several of its sites.

An Ecotricity spokesman claimed Tesla was negotiating with a unnamed company, asking it to break off exclusivity contracts signed with Ecotricity and sign for Tesla instead. He said that Tesla had come in to contact with the company through its NDA with Ecotricity.

Ecotricity has sought an injunction at the high court to stop Tesla using information gleaned from the two company's partnership under the NDA.

"We are shocked and disappointed that a company like Tesla, with its aura of new world technology and challenger brand status, could behave in such an old world way – shame on them and shame on Elon Musk," said Vince in a statement.



A Tesla spokesman said the company had received the injunction and would "respond accordingly" but he could not comment on the specifics of the case as it was now a legal issue. He would not confirm the NDA and relationship with Ecotricity, but said: "We do work with partners around the world as needed."

Tesla has a network of over 100 such superchargers, capable of restoring much of the battery capacity on one of its cars within 30 minutes instead of the overnight charge supplied by a conventional mains charge, in countries including the US, China, Germany, France and Austria.

Musk told the Guardian last year that the UK charging network would be solar-powered, and that he planned in future to make the company's high-end cars in Europe in the near future.

The Sunday Times reported this week that one of the first UK superchargers would be at South Mimms services in Hertforshire and that there would be charging points on a route between Dover along the M20 and another from Bristol along the M4, converging on the M25 before following the route of the M1.