Tesla Engineer Denies Prioritizing 'Affluent' Cybertruck Owners For Lightbar Installation

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is not prioritizing the “affluent” owners of the higher-end variant of the Cybertruck over others for installation of the off-road light bar, company engineer Wes Morrill said on Tuesday following allegations otherwise.

What Happened: An X user on Tuesday noted that he has not received the lightbar while popular individuals like car enthusiast and YouTuber Kyle Conner have.

“Seems like Tesla is prioritizing affluent community members' installs over the general public's. This is rather upsetting, our money is just as green as theirs…,” the individual wrote to Tesla executives Wes Morrill and Lars Moravy.

Morrill, however, said that the company is ramping up production of the light bar which is reaching customers in the order of production of their vehicles.

“They are trying to opportunistically group installs by service center for efficiency so some installs will happen out of order,” Morrill said, denying the allegations of unfair prioritization for some drivers.

“For what it’s worth Kyle has a 0001xx vin,” he added, implying that the YouTuber took delivery of the Cybertruck early.

Why It Matters: The Cybertruck Lightbar is an accessory that can be mounted on top of the truck to increase visibility when driving off-road. While all Foundation Series Cyberbeast variant owners are eligible to receive the lightbar, customers have only begun receiving it.

Tesla started delivering the first Cybertrucks to customers in the U.S. in late November 2023. The vehicle starts at nearly $100,000 for the limited-edition Foundation series Cybertruck and at about $80,000 for the non-foundation series.

According to data from automotive research company Kelley Blue Book, Tesla sold 16,692 Cybertrucks in the third quarter, making it the third best-selling electric vehicle in the U.S. behind Tesla’s Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan.

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