Tesla filed a lawsuit against a Cybertruck supplier that effectively blocked production

Tesla has appealed to a U.S. federal court for urgent access to the closing plant of supplier Angstrom Automotive Group in Texas. The company wants to retrieve equipment for Cybertruck production, stating that without it, it cannot manufacture several thousand electric pickups already ordered by customers. This is reported by Electrek, writes UNN.

Details

Tesla filed a lawsuit on July 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, case No. 6:26-cv-0477. The company's demand is narrow. Tesla is not seeking damages and is not trying to resolve all commercial disputes underlying the conflict. The company only wants access to the plant to retrieve its property.

Tesla asks the court to grant it only one thing — the return of Tesla's equipment. The company does not seek to address any other disputes between the parties

The timeline of events in the lawsuit is short and tense. According to Tesla, Angstrom's July 13 notice of the closure of the plant in Troy was not accompanied by cooperation regarding a plan to remove the company's equipment. July 17 was supposed to be the shipping day for 700 finished Tesla parts. However, they never left the plant premises.

After that, Angstrom invoiced for modifications the company made to the equipment and also offered to continue plant operations on the condition that Tesla pay an additional $250,000 per week on top of the amounts already covered by open orders.

In response, on July 21, Tesla sent its representatives to Troy along with law enforcement. However, the plant gates remained closed.

Angstrom has not publicly commented on the situation.

Equipment that cannot simply be replaced or quickly manufactured

The equipment Tesla wants to retrieve is described in the lawsuit as large die-casting machines, trimming dies, special fixtures, cutting tools, measuring equipment, and X-ray inspection systems. This is multi-ton equipment specifically created for the production of specific Cybertruck parts.

Therefore, Tesla cannot simply turn to another supplier. According to the lawsuit, currently no other company can manufacture these parts, and creating new equipment from scratch would take five to six months.

Tesla also states that its inventory of necessary components is "dwindling and will be exhausted in just a few days."

This is the main problem of influence in this situation. Whoever physically controls these molds controls the Cybertruck production line, and currently it is not Tesla

Angstrom became a Tesla supplier last year

Angstrom is a Tier 1 supplier headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. The company was founded in 1999 and actively expanded through acquisitions during 2025.

In July last year, Angstrom acquired Canadian company KSR International, which, according to Automotive News, created a supplier with annual revenue of over $1 billion and approximately 4,500 employees.