Tesla says Texas supplier demands $250,000 a week to release Cybertruck tooling

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It’s claimed that a supplier is demanding payment of $250,000 per week from Tesla.

Tesla attempted to retrieve equipment from the supplier in July but was denied access.

Without the key pieces of tooling, production of the Cybertruck could stall.

Demand for and sales of the Tesla Cybertruck still sit far below what Elon Musk first promised, and now the automaker says its own production and deliveries are being choked off by a Texas supplier allegedly holding key manufacturing equipment for ransom. It’s not a good look for a truck already struggling to find buyers.

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According to court documents seen by Bloomberg Law , the supplier in question, Angstrom Automotive Group LLC, told Tesla on July 13 that it planned to close its facility in Troy, Texas. The EV maker wanted to pull important tooling out of the site before the doors shut, but according to Tesla , Angstrom refused to release the equipment and instead demanded $250,000 per week, on top of whatever is still owed on existing purchase orders.

Read: The Cybertruck Is Flopping So Hard It Could Knock Ford’s Edsel Off Its Throne

In a complaint filed July 23 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, Tesla says its representatives showed up at Angstrom’s facility on July 21 to collect the equipment and were turned away. The filing claims the tooling house at the site exists solely to manufacture Cybertruck parts , and that each piece takes five to six months to build. Replacing them outright isn’t practical, especially with Tesla still taking orders for the truck.

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Holding Tesla Hostage

“Without the tooling, Tesla will be unable to manufacture several thousand Cybertrucks that are currently in or planned for production, most, if not all, of which are already committed to customers,” Tesla said in the lawsuit. The company added that “a parts shortage of this nature would cause irreparable harm for Tesla and others…including the erosion of other supplier and customer goodwill.”

Tesla says that Angstrom has never owned the tooling at its facility, nor has it ever paid a single dollar towards the design, manufacture, or acquisition of the equipment. If it doesn’t allow Tesla to retrieve the equipment, the automaker says it’s entitled to “obtain temporary and/or permanent injunctive relief or other equitable relief to retrieve the tooling without the necessity of posting any bond or proof of action, injury, or damage.”

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