CHERY Automobile Co Ltd has denied accusations by its former partner Visionary Vehicles LLC that it has reneged on contracts.

'We have not received any information regarding the entrepreneur Bricklin and his Visionary Vehicle LLC from the Detroit Federal Court,' Jin Yibo, the deputy general manager of Chery Automobile Sales Co Ltd, said yesterday.

Malcolm Bricklin, who became famous for introducing low-priced vehicles to America, has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Detroit, claiming Chery reneged on contracts after a scrapped export deal with his company. He also alleged Chery used Visionary Vehicles to obtain plans and information about the US car market.

He is seeking compensation of US$1.1 billion from Chery which includes the US$26 million he raised from investors as well as potential losses that could add up to US$1.4 billion.

Visionary Vehicle and Chery agreed in 2005 to form a joint venture to produce cars targeting the US market. As the exclusive sales distributor, Visionary had expected to start selling the Chinese-made Chery in 2007.

Although the deal was scrapped in 2006 because of disagreements over which model should be manufactured, Chery became a household name as the first Chinese car maker aggressively seeking opportunities to sell Chinese-made cars in the US market.

Since then, the Chinese company has teamed up with Chrylser LLC and Quantum LLC, a unit of Israel Corp, to make and sell cars in the US.