A dispute between Porsche and its former importer in India is intensifying, as the ex-partner claims the move by the German car maker to end their relationship has resulted in financial losses.
Precision Cars, the former importer for Porsche in India, first took legal action against Porsche last summer following what it believes to be an unfair termination of its role as the official importer for the luxury car brand.
Last year Porsche appointed Volkswagen Group Sales India as its importer instead. Volkswagen owns Porsche.
Precision Cars alleges that it was not given warning of the change and claims that it was led to believe by Porsche that it would continue its role as official importer.
"We invested over US$30 million [Dh110.2m] and we did so many showrooms," said Ashish Chordia, the chief executive of Precision Cars.
"There was no performance lapse. It was just their global restructuring. If I've invested on a reciprocal promise to make returns in the future, right when we are about to start making money after losing money for almost a decade, it's not fair to just turn the plug off.
"Especially when you invest in a company like Porsche for a market like India, which when we started was very minuscule and to be earned in the future," he added. "When the volume came about, they wanted to take it all away."
Following a separate criminal case filed by Precision Cars, a court in Jaipur issued arrest warrants in November for several Porsche executives, including Matthias Mueller, the head of the company.
The warrants included executives in the UAE and in Germany because Precision Cars had a contract with Porsche Middle East.
In its complaint, Precision Cars accused Porsche of criminal conspiracy, extortion and cheating.
Porsche has described the complaint as "baseless".
"The filing of criminal proceeding is an afterthought and just an attempt by the former importer to open a new - in the view of Porsche's local lawyers inherently frivolous - proceeding against Porsche," according to a statement issued by the company.
"Porsche has the highest regards for the Indian judiciary and is going … to have the warrants and criminal proceedings quashed within the applicable periods," the statement added.
Precision Cars had also filed a series of civil cases against Porsche. The Porsche cars have to be imported fully built to India and the duties that must be paid are extremely high, meaning that customers often have to pay more than double the price they might pay in Europe for the car. Precision Cars sold 136 Porsches in 2010 in India and 312 cars in 2011.
Precision Cars had opened eight dealerships across India during the past seven years including outlets in Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad.
It is still operating their showrooms in India, said Mr Chordia.
"But we're not receiving any support from the factory in terms of shipments, parts, so the business is suffering. [Porsche is] not happy. They want us to get done with it, but we are not happy to do that until the matter is sorted in its entirety. "
