After criticizing "Gaohe Automobile as a shame in the industry", Jia Yueting went on hot search again.
On March 5th, the official Weibo account of Faraday Future announced the lawsuit against Gaohe Automobile. Subsequently, Jia Yueting personally released a lengthy article, pointing directly at Gao He's plagiarism and claiming that Ding Lei and Gao He misled the media, users, and investors through false disclosure and false communication, while continuously smearing FF and causing significant damage to FF's reputation. And it stated that further legal action will be taken globally, including in the United States.
Jia Yueting: It's time to uphold justice
On March 5th, Faraday Future (FF) announced that FF and its Chinese subsidiaries have filed a lawsuit against former FF executive and founder of China Express, Ding Lei (along with other affiliated companies, hereinafter referred to as "China Express"), with the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province, China, for infringement of trade secrets and unfair competition. The company requests the court to order compensation for the corresponding losses and further demands that Chinese Express immediately stop infringing on the trade secrets related to FF 91, including but not limited to stopping the use of the trade secrets in question, designing, developing, producing, and selling suspected infringing products using the trade secrets in question, selling suspected infringing products, or providing after-sales service for suspected infringing products using the trade secrets in question, And immediately cease the alleged unfair competition behavior.
Jia Yueting also "personally stepped down" and wrote:
After a long period of investigation, evidence collection, and preparation, FF officially filed a lawsuit today against Ding Lei and Gao He Automobile for suspected illegal or even criminal acts of theft and infringement of FF's intellectual property, technical data, and trade secrets.
Ding Lei has spent nearly two years in office, with an income of more than 30 million yuan, learning FF's new AI and Internet car building concepts and knowledge, but by taking advantage of his position, he has been planning and implementing the theft of FF's intellectual property rights, technical data and business secrets. After leaving office, he continued to carry out the above acts together with Gaohe Auto, and was able to launch plagiarized products in a very short time within the R&D delivery cycle far lower than the industry law requires. The suspected illegal and even criminal behavior of Ding Lei and Gao He not only brought huge economic losses to FF, but also brought shame to the industry, seriously damaging the innovation source of the industry and distorting its values.
For a long time, Ding Lei and Gao He have misled the media, users, and investors through false disclosure and false communication, while continuously smearing FF, causing significant damage to FF's reputation.
Jia Yueting also said at the end of the article, "It's time to expose Li Gui and uphold justice..."
On March 5th, Gaohe Automobile issued a statement stating that the company and Ding Lei did not engage in any plagiarism or infringement of FF Company's trade secrets and intellectual property rights, nor did they engage in unfair competition; The company's mass-produced Gaohe X/Z/Y series models are independently developed and jointly developed with supplier partners, with independent intellectual property rights; The company has been established for 6 years, and prior to this, the company and Ding Lei have never received any lawsuits from FF Company.
Gaohe Automobile stated that it will protect the rights and reputation of the company and its founders from infringement through legal means.
Former partner turned against each other and became enemies
In fact, FF's recent confrontation with Chinese Express and Ding Lei has long been foreshadowed. Not long ago, when the crisis of shutdown and production of Gaohe Automobile attracted support from some car company executives, Jia Yueting commented on a friend's circle of a capital market insider that Gaohe Automobile was "a disgrace to the industry".
Regarding Jia Yueting's suspected "bombardment" of Gaohe Automobile, many netizens joked, "Why not go back to China to chat?" Some netizens also said, "The joke of paying for 10 cars is a shame for a company that pays tens of thousands of cars."
Sina Weibo
The origin of Ding Lei and Jia Yueting can be traced back to 2015. In July 2015, Ding Lei joined LeEco as co-founder and global vice chairman and CEO of LeEco Super Automotive in China and the Asia Pacific region. At that time, Jia Yueting posted Weibo to welcome Ding Lei's joining, and the two actively interacted. Jia Yueting even referred to Ding Lei as a "leader level figure in the automotive industry.".
In 2017, Ding Lei announced on Weibo that due to personal health reasons, after careful consideration and full communication with LeEco founder Jia Yueting, he would no longer serve as the Global Vice Chairman and CEO of China and the Asia Pacific region of LeEco Super Cars. After leaving LeEco Auto, Ding Lei started his own business and founded Chinese Express in August 2017. On July 31, 2019, Chinese Express officially launched the new luxury intelligent pure electric brand Gaohe HiPhi in Shanghai.
Nowadays, Jia Yueting's sarcastic remarks towards his former partners have sparked speculation in the industry.
It is worth mentioning that when Gaohe launched its first mass-produced model, HiPhi X, it was questioned by the outside world due to its similarity in appearance to the FF 91.
Enterprise image supply
On February 23rd, Jerry Wang, one of the former core executives of FF and Vice President of the Capital Department, commented in a repost of an article related to Gaohe Automobile that "thieves+fraudsters have no core product technological competitiveness and can only plagiarize. Plagiarism has long been impassable in China.". At the same time, Wang Jiawei also cited media reports stating that after parting ways with LeEco, Ding Lei obtained the full set of design data for the FF 91, which led to the appearance of Gaohe Automobile's first car, HiPhi X, which was very close to the FF 91.
Sina Weibo (@ Wang Jiawei Jerry)
In response to this, Yang Yueqing, the project director of Gaohe Automobile, responded in a recent live broadcast that "we have not copied anyone, all engineers, original manuscripts, drawings, and patents are located in Shanghai Pujiang Park.".
Public information shows that Gaohe Automobile, founded in 2019, currently has models for sale including Gaohe HiPhi X, Gaohe HiPhi Z, and Gaohe HiPhi Y, with prices ranging from 570000 to 800000 yuan, 510000 to 630000 yuan, and 339000 to 45900 yuan, respectively.
Since the start of delivery in 2021, Gaohe Automobile has not regularly released sales data. According to the official website, as of March 11, 2022, Gaohe has delivered a total of 5142 vehicles; In November 2023, Gaohe announced that it would sell a new model HiPhi Y 1606 units in October.
According to China News Service, starting from February 18th this year, Gaohe Automobile has entered a comprehensive shutdown phase, with a tentative duration of 6 months. The factory is not allowed to enter, and January wages will be delayed until the end of February.
It is reported that Ding Lei recently appeared at the headquarters of Gaohe in Shanghai. He apologized and admitted that the current situation in Gaohe is even more difficult than the crisis during the Shanghai epidemic in 2022. The company encountered this situation, leaving him speechless, and the window period for Gaohe Automobile to turn over was at most three months.
"In the next three months, Gaohe Automobile will be very difficult, and I haven't slept for almost 24 hours. These months, it's a low point for me, and I haven't come out of a mistake. I can't beat the Internet with traditional business strategies." Later, Wu Qifeng, vice president of China Express, added, "The shortest possible time is only one month.".
Public information shows that Faraday Future (FF) was established in 2014, but its first mass-produced car, the FF 91, took 9 years to go offline. At the 2023 FF 91 Futurist mass production press conference, Jia Yueting stated that he had suffocated his dream for 9 years. However, according to official data, a total of 10 FF 91s were delivered by FF in 2023.
It is worth noting that the current development trend of both parties involved is not optimistic, and the sued Gaohe Automobile is currently struggling to survive. Faraday's future sales are even less, and its stock price has already fallen below $1.
It is reported that FF also demanded that Gaohe Automobile Company stop the production and sales of all infringing vehicles and pay billions of yuan in compensation in the above-mentioned lawsuit. In addition, the Daily Economic News reporter also learned that FF has planned to prosecute Ding Lei in the United States in the second phase. In addition to demanding high compensation, FF will also file a criminal lawsuit against Ding Lei.