NL
Tesla wins court order to recover Cybertruck tooling from supplier Angstrom, and Giga Texas output picks up3 min

Tesla wins court order to recover Cybertruck tooling from supplier Angstrom, and Giga Texas output picks up

Factories ·

A federal judge has given Tesla the right to enter supplier Angstrom Automotive's closing plant in Troy, Texas, and take back the dies and casting tools it needs to build the Cybertruck. A flyover the next day suggested production is recovering.

Tesla has won the first round in an unusual fight with one of its Cybertruck suppliers. On August 5, a federal judge in Texas granted Tesla a temporary restraining order and a writ of replevin against Angstrom Automotive Group, giving Tesla the immediate right to enter Angstrom's plant in Troy, Texas, and recover its Cybertruck tooling. A day later, there were signs that production at Giga Texas was bouncing back.

What the court decided

  • Court: US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, case number 6:26-cv-00477.
  • Judge: Christopher R. Wolfe.
  • Order: a temporary restraining order plus a writ of replevin, a legal tool to get back specific property.
  • Effect: Tesla may enter the facility and take its equipment.

The order is temporary. A fuller hearing is still to come, and only Tesla's side of the story has been heard in public so far. Angstrom has not commented publicly.

How the dispute started

According to Tesla's complaint, filed on July 23 and first reported by Bloomberg Law, the problems started when Angstrom said it was closing the Troy plant:

  • July 13: Angstrom told Tesla the plant would close, without agreeing a plan to remove Tesla's equipment.
  • July 17: a shipment of 700 finished parts was due to leave. It never did.
  • After that: Angstrom billed Tesla for changes to the tooling and offered to keep the plant running if Tesla paid an extra $250,000 a week on top of what it already owed. Tesla's filing called this holding its own property 'for ransom'.
  • July 21: Tesla staff went to Troy with law enforcement. The gate stayed closed.

The equipment includes large die-casting machinery, trim dies, fixtures, cutting tools, gauges and X-ray inspection gear, much of it weighing several tonnes and built for specific Cybertruck castings. Tesla said no other supplier could make these parts, that rebuilding the tools would take five to six months, and that its stock of the parts would run out within days. Several thousand Cybertrucks already promised to customers depended on them. Tesla did not ask for damages, only for its tooling back.

Who is Angstrom?

Angstrom Automotive Group is a tier-one supplier from Southfield, Michigan, founded in 1999. It bought Ontario-based KSR International in July 2025 and Anderton Castings in September 2025. Anderton runs aluminium die-casting in Troy, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico, and was the company Tesla originally worked with. Angstrom inherited that relationship.

Production signs at Giga Texas

On the morning of August 6, aerial observer Joe Tegtmeyer flew over Giga Texas and counted roughly 100 or more Cybertrucks in the outbound lot, the first visible recovery after a lean stretch. Teslarati, which reported the count, noted that lot counts are an imperfect measure, because finished trucks can sit for days before shipping.

Cybertruck output has been uneven all year, with supply issues and new versions, including a cheaper dual-motor all-wheel-drive model that drew strong early demand.

Why it matters

The case shows how fragile a car's supply chain can be when a single supplier holds unique tooling. It may also reflect the Cybertruck's sales gap. Electrek pointed out that Tesla once planned capacity for up to 250,000 Cybertrucks a year but sells about 20,000 a year, which may have left some suppliers with idle capacity and unpaid tooling costs. That does not settle who is right here, but it helps explain why tensions arose.

What to watch next

Watch for the full hearing, any response from Angstrom, and whether Tesla moves the recovered tooling to another supplier or brings the work in-house. Tesla's third-quarter delivery figures in early October will show whether Cybertruck production fully recovered.

Sources (2)
11 kW

A 22 kW charger won't charge your Tesla any faster

Most Tesla models charge at home at up to 11 kW AC.

Read why →
3 min

Tesla's Megafactories explained: Lathrop, Shanghai and Texas, and their 110 GWh of Megapack capacity

Tesla now builds its Megapack grid batteries in three dedicated plants on two continents. Here is what each one does, how big they are and why the network matters.

3 min

Giga New York explained: what Tesla actually does at its Buffalo factory

Tesla's Buffalo plant was meant to be a giant solar factory. Today it makes Supercharger parts and energy products, assembles a new solar panel and labels data for FSD. Here is how it got there.

3 min

Tesla's factories can build 2.5 million cars a year. In Q3 they ran at a pace of about 1.86 million

Tesla's latest capacity table shows room for more than 2.5 million vehicles a year, after Giga Texas got a bigger Model Y rating. Actual output is well below that, and most of the spare room sits outside China. Here is the plant-by-plant picture.

3 min

Tesla's battery bottleneck: inside its Nevada LFP cell plant, Texas lithium refinery and cathode factory

Battery supply is still the limit on how many cars Tesla can build. Its new cell and materials plants in Nevada and Texas are in early ramp. Here is what each one makes, how big it is and how far along it is.

2 min

Tesla's factories after Q3 2026: record rates, an Optimus line in Fremont and a Semi plant in Nevada

The third-quarter call gave a rare overview of Tesla's production network. What is running, what is ramping, and what is still being built, factory by factory.

2 min

Giga Mexico three and a half years on: what happened to Tesla's factory near Monterrey

In 2023, Tesla announced a large factory in Nuevo León. It was slowed, then paused. A look at what was promised, why it stalled, and how it fits Tesla's plans today.

2 min

Giga Berlin raises pay by up to 5% as it pushes for 7,500 cars a week, but IG Metall wants more

Tesla's Grünheide workers get another raise from October. What changes, how it compares with the union's demands, and what it says about the plant's production push.

2 min

Giga Berlin plans a second hall twice the size of the first, aiming for up to a million cars a year

Tesla wants to add a 536,000 m² building north of its Grünheide plant. What is planned, when construction could start, and why it will take years.

3 min

Giga Berlin builds 7,000 Model Ys in a single week, a new record for Tesla's German factory

Tesla says its plant in Grünheide near Berlin has produced 7,000 Model Ys in one week, up from the 6,000 mark it first reached in 2024. The target is 7,500 a week. Here is what the milestone means and what it does not tell us.

3 min

The Cybercab has half the parts of any Tesla, and its Giga Texas line can run faster than 125,000 a year

On Tesla's Q3 2026 call, engineering chief Lars Moravy said the Cybercab has about 50% fewer parts than any car Tesla has built, and that test bursts show the Texas line can beat its listed capacity. Regulators, not the factory, may set the pace.

3 min

Giga Shanghai sets a quarterly record as nearly half its cars now go abroad

Tesla's Shanghai plant sold 95,366 cars in September, its best month of 2026, and a record 275,111 in the third quarter. Exports have more than doubled this year while sales in China keep falling.

2 min

Tesla opens its Semi factory in Nevada and starts series deliveries

Nine years after its unveiling, the Tesla Semi is in series production. The new Nevada plant is built for up to 50,000 trucks a year, with Europe due in 2027.

3 min

Giga Shanghai builds its 6 millionth battery pack, just 279 days after the 5 millionth

Tesla's Shanghai factory has assembled six million battery packs. The last million took about nine months, as exports from the plant hit records while sales inside China fall. Here is what the milestone shows about Tesla's biggest factory.

2 min

First Megapack 3 rolls off the line at Tesla's new Texas Megafactory

Tesla has started production of the Megapack 3 in Brookshire, near Houston, in a factory designed for 50 GWh a year. Here is what is new about the battery and why it matters.

3 min

Tesla builds its 10 millionth car, a Model Y from Fremont, six years after its first million

A Diamond Black Model Y from the Fremont Factory in California is Tesla's 10 millionth vehicle. The first million took 12 years; the next nine million took just over six.