Tesla Lays Off Entire Supercharger Team [Update: Musk says supercharger growth will continue] ** WARNING: NO POLITICS***

[RickMachE]

It almost appears he played another uno reverse card.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/0...eryone-working-on-superchargers-new-vehicles/


I wouldn't think that a new model was a priority if you let go the executive and his team responsible for new vehicles.

Logic? You're trying to apply logic to his moves? ? ? ? ? ? ?

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[Blue highway]

This is my only possible hypothesis about why this is being done

Maybe it's to prevent an anti-trust gov't discussion down the road... and just terribly executed?

Sell off the network? let this team stand up their own company?

I dunno... I've read the Musk bio book and this move seems consistent with what he does. He periodically creates crisis by firing a bunch of people or creating an emergency of some kind ... in my opinion because he thinks it is interesting... He is bored with the car business and is interested in full self driving (AI)... It seems to me if people really wanted this, the take rate would be higher or they would buy a Mercedes which actually sells a level 3 capability.

 

[thekat03]

Unlike many on here, I actually like Tesla. They have world class engineering and have been managed pretty well to become so profitable on EVs while everyone else is bleeding money on them...

But this decision seems baffling. Not sure how that can possibly be good for the company beyond some short term cost savings.

I think there is a difference between the Tesla engineers who design and improve the Tesla cars, superchargers, etc. And then there is Elon Musk, who seems to have done better to leave the company alone and play with Twitter/X. I don't like Musk, for multiple reasons, and it seems he is laying off some of the brains at Tesla that helped make the company as successful as it is. We will see if these decisions help make Tesla a leaner and more effective company, or if they break more than they fix.

 

[RickMachE]

What I have not seen is a comprehensive discussion of DC charging station economics. Lurking in the back of my mind is that they are not really profitable. They demand more real-estate than a gas pump slot, utilities generally base rates on highest usage of the month or year. If possible, people prefer to charge at home.

Corollary to this, I continue to think that rural and isolated areas could often best be served by 60 amp AC charging stations, and with some sort of reservation system. You don't want to be third in line when it is going to take 4-5 hours to charge your vehicle.

All of this said, firing the Supercharger team is simply bizarre. I hope it triggers government response.

I guess I scratch my head when I read people say that AC charging can work for many people. They must never take a trip. We need a nationwide network of DC fast chargers, just like the government plan.

Do I use AC charging on trips? Sure. Hotels, recently at a ski area, in a downtown if I'm there for dinner or walking around. 4-5 hours is not generally feasible (except at a hotel), and getting a 40 - 50% charge isn't often worth the time wasted.

 

[Blue highway]

This is my only possible hypothesis about why this is being done

Maybe it's to prevent an anti-trust gov't discussion down the road... and just terribly executed?

Sell off the network? let this team stand up their own company?

you should read his bio... this is the kind of chaos he does in his companies every few years... he is bored.

 

[Kyle]

My hunch is that the Tesla deal with Ford and other manufactures was never going to be a good deal for non Tesla owners. I'm sure Musk got everything he wanted. The Tesla plug adopted as the standard for chargers, and some new customers willing to pay more to use their network of chargers. I wonder if Tesla owners will pay the same to charge at a Ford network charger. I will find out some day if I ever get the adapter. Meanwhile the best charger in my network is in my garage...

 

[HuntingPudel]

I wonder if they considered selling off the SC unit to another company. Maybe open source the SC deign so others can pick up the ball and run with it?

If they did consider it, they just hurt the value of the sale by getting rid of key personnel in the division. ?‍?

 

[Blue highway]

Not to over-react, but if the SC network atrophies, it will set the EV industry back a decade in just a quarter. You think your resale values are down now... if the SC charging network goes down, there will be a massive reduction in EV values... and likely some massive lawsuits against Tesla.

 

[ChehRob]

I live in Washington State, live midst the metro Seattle area, but really enjoy all of the ultra-isolated places the Pacific NW has. There are 'hamlets' galore with less than 100 population, one restaurant and an expensive grocery store. They are 100, maybe 200 miles from the nearest freeway. For my wife and me, they are destinations, we like to arrive, do some exploring, take in a no hurry meal. So long as they have a cell phone tower nearby (just about all of them) I can easily plan a 4-8 hour stop. Many of them don't have a hotel or motel. Most of them are not tourist destinations, nor are they way-stops leading to a tourist destination.

 

[Jerrytball]

I'm terrified that the US space program relies on SpaceX, one day he decides to give it all to Russia or just gets bored with it and destroys the whole thing.

Sorry if it's too political for your taste.

Yeah, he spent so much money on space adventure I guess that’s gonna take away from the EV. What you see on TV as far as stuff he’s launching and Outer space that’s the stuff they wanna share. My daughter lives right across from the launchpad and their launching like 2 to 3 times a week over there, it’s crazy. I know last year when I was down there playing golf with two guys. They both worked over there at the space Center and they said they’ve got so much stuff going up. It’s hard to keep up with it.

 

[RickMachE]

My hunch is that the Tesla deal with Ford and other manufactures was never going to be a good deal for non Tesla owners. I'm sure Musk got everything he wanted. The Tesla plug adopted as the standard for chargers, and some new customers willing to pay more to use their network of chargers. I wonder if Tesla owners will pay the same to charge at a Ford network charger. I will find out some day if I ever get the adapter. Meanwhile the best charger in my network is in my garage...

There is no "Ford network" for a Tesla owner to charge at... All Ford chargers are in other networks. Even dealership chargers aren't in a Ford network.

 

[Blue highway]

https://electrek.co/2024/04/29/tesla-conducting-more-layoffs-including-entire-supercharger-team/

Reportedly Tesla will be letting the entire 500 person Supercharger team go today. Sounds like they will not be taking on any new Supercharger projects which is extremely unfortunate. Very bad news for the EV world if Tesla doesn't want to build any more Superchargers.

You also wonder if this will further impact deliveries of Supercharger adapters. Did the Supercharger team's handling of non-Tesla NACS charging somehow anger Musk? Did he suddenly decide that Superchargers weren’t going to be profitable anymore?

• How is the SC network going to keep running without management and maintenance?
• What am I going to do with an SC adapter without a working SC network?
• Why would anybody buy a Tesla without the SC network?

 

[Vulnox]

Yeah this is pretty wild, I hope for the sake of all EV adoption as others noted that this has a better ending than it looks right now. Tesla vehicles are not the best in market any longer, there is a better EV in every vehicle class they compete with. But their winning formula continues to be the mix of UI/Services/SuperCharger network that even allowing 3rd party vehicles into won't replicate.

Removing the SuperCharger advantage leaves them with vehicles outclassed by others with maybe still the better UI/Services integration, but that gap is closing pretty rapidly.

But, applying logic to anything Musk has done in the past 5 or so years is a losing battle. He was always a bit eccentric but with seemingly the right destination in mind, even if it was unconventional how he got there. But now it's just rapid decisions that have not once in those five years arrived at a worthwhile destination. Twitter is on fire, the CyberTruck is a mess with a few good ideas that are lost to how bad everything else is, and now he has taken an interest in Tesla at large again after largely being hands-off, but only to take the only part of the company coveted by other auto manufacturers and behead it.

 

[AKgrampy]

How many have looked into the status of their State’s NEVI funded projects? Sure the use of the SuperCharger network is an instant fix but shouldn’t quite a few NEVI sites be coming on-line in the next 12 months? That should also take up a lot of the congestion. I know here in Alaska that we are getting around 9 sites in the next year, a few this summer, although I would assume the Tesla equipped sites may be in doubt at this time.

 

[Billyk24]

I think you raise a valid concern.

The flip side is a loss of revenue when non Tesla users are kicked out. Tesla as any other business looks for increased revenue. Many MME owners using their Tesla adaptor now have first hand experience with enhanced reliability. Would rather go to the Supercharger than those often unreliable CCS DCFC charging stalls.

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