Billionaire Elon Musk has become embroiled in a row with British green energy company Ecotricity, which has accused his electric cars firm Tesla of “old-world” business dealings and a “smash-and-grab raid” on its intellectual property.

Ecotricity, which has built an Electric Highway network of electric car charging posts, claims Tesla used commercially sensitive information on installing charging stations to bypass Ecotricity and approach landlords to create its own network.

Tesla has a raft of highways in the US dotted with electric car charging stations which can power a car for 150 miles of driving.

Tesla opened its first UK dealership in Westfield London in October and is set to deliver orders for its new Model-S electric cars. Ecotricity showed Tesla “the best locations, introduced them to our landlords and partners and started building the first two chargers for them,” founder Dale Vince said.

Vince claimed he then received a “shocking and brutal” email from Tesla setting out plans for its own charging network. He said: “This is nothing more than an attempted smash and grab raid.”

Ecotricity said it has brought an interim High Court injunction.

A Tesla spokesman declined to comment on the details of the legal case but said: “Our priority is to build a network of superchargers. Its full steam ahead and they will be deployed. It continues apace.”

Tesla has existing charging networks worldwide including in the US, China, Germany and Austria.