GM's Hybrid Secrets Stolen, Pitched for Sale to Chinese Competitor
By Michelle Krebs July 23, 2010
This story has all the makings of a Robert Ludlum spy novel.
On Thursday, the U.S. government arrested a Troy, Mich., couple on charges of conspiring to steal General Motors' hybrid technology secrets and attempting to sell them to Chinese automaker Chery, a GM competitor in China. Chery has told wire services it had no knowledge of the case.
Detroit media report that Shanshan Du, 51, passed secrets of GM's technology to her husband Yu Qin, 49, for use in their company, Millennium Technology International.
GM offered Du a buyout in January 2005. She then copied thousands of pages of GM documents to a Millennium Technology external computer hard drive; she also emailed information to her husband on GM's email system, according to court records.
Qin then pitched the hybrid technology to Chery Automobile as Millenium Technology's own. In May 2006, the couple ditched bags of shredded documents in a garbage contained behind a grocery store -- documents that a federal grand jury had subpoenaed, authorities told the Detroit media.
The stolen documents are valued at more than $40 million. Government authorities say the documents never made their way to China.
The stolen GM technology is not that used in the upcoming Chevrolet Volt. Rather it is the two-mode hybrid technology that GM developed for its large trucks - the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra - and its big SUVs, including the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon. GM later created a venture with BMW and then DaimlerChrysler to further develop the technology and spread it across more vehicles.
Both arrested are Chinese immigrants and naturalized U.S. citizens, authorities said. They stood mute in U.S. District Court on Thursday to a six-count indictment charging them with unauthorized possession of trade secrets, wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Not guilty pleas were entered on their behalf and they were released on $10,000 bonds.
GM is no stranger to legal issues with China's Chery either. The U.S. automaker in 2004 sued Chery in China for copy infringement, accusing Chery of copying the Chevrolet Spark for the Chery CC. GM lost the case. Later, Chrysler negotiated with Chery for production of a small car, negotiations that ultimately were abandoned.
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