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

[rreddy3]

This looks like a golden opportunity for @Ford Motor Company to pick up some talent at a discount. ? ? ?

Interesting you should mention that. Ford’s CFO in his interview with Bloomberg after Ford’s financial results were announced on April 24 discussed among other things Ford’s hiring of key staff to work on EV projects. The public statements indicate Ford is very committed to the EV business and its next generation of EVs. It did leave me wondering whether MME staff time was largely being consumed by next gen development as opposed to support of the current generation, and if so, whether that is affecting OTA fixes and enhancements. The interview is 6 to 8 minutes long as I recall so won’t take up much of your time. It is interesting to listen to I think. Info is also available on Ford’s website, I think under either the investor relations or news tabs.

Back to the news that started this thread. Reuters has a good, consise reporting article that went on line this morning. It includes some speculative commentary from analysts who presumably have keener insights since their careers are built around analyzing the industry. I’m not saying they’re all correct or holding them up as all knowing, just that they may have some good insight. I’d post a link but frankly I don’t think I know how. Google Reuters news service and you ahould find it if you’re interested.

Be well, stay safe, and have a good day! (I don’t think that’s a “political statement”… I think it’s a simple courtesy.)

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[Pioneer74]

I think this is the article you're referencing.

https://www.reuters.com/business/au...rging-team-leaving-customers-dark-2024-04-30/

 

[silverelan]

Updated with Elon Musk's first comment after supercharger team layoffs:

"Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations"





News Article:
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?

As I understand it, there’s nobody left to handle Superchargers that aren’t already open. There’s stations all over North America, like this one in Seattle, that are in various stages of construction but now there’s no one to coordinate with contractors, utilities, government agencies, etc. What a clown show.

 

[rreddy3]

I think this is the article you're referencing.

https://www.reuters.com/business/au...rging-team-leaving-customers-dark-2024-04-30/

it is, thank you for posting it

 

[Blue highway]

As I understand it, there’s nobody left to handle Superchargers that aren’t already open. There’s stations all over North America, like this one in Seattle, that are in various stages of construction but now there’s no one to coordinate with contractors, utilities, government agencies, etc. What a clown show.

yes... it was reported today that 4 in progress SC projects in NY were cancelled over night...

I think this will crush EV sales globally... There will be some stories about charging lines growing and slow or no repairs... and those on the fence will stay with ICE... many of us may go back to ICE as well. Thanks Elon...

 

[azerik]

Was there any mention of the promised NACS adapters getting cut as well? I would assume they're 'connected' somehow.

 

[ack154]

yes... it was reported today that 4 in progress SC projects in NY were cancelled over night...

I think this will crush EV sales globally... There will be some stories about charging lines growing and slow or no repairs... and those on the fence will stay with ICE... many of us may go back to ICE as well. Thanks Elon...

There are two near me in upstate NY (not part of those 4 around NYC that were cancelled) that are under construction - one is near finished and should open literally any day, the other has just started. I don't see any reason they wouldn't be finished though, since everything is already rolling and physically happening.

I think the NYC ones were at various stages of pre-planning or planning but I'm not sure if I recall reading if they broke ground or not yet. I remember at least one of them was "power ready" or something, I forget the exact term.

Feels weird to even say this, but it would be even CRAZIER if they just halt new stations mid-install after breaking ground and all of that. But at this point, it's hard to actually rule anything out.

 

[Blue highway]

There are two near me in upstate NY (not part of those 4 around NYC that were cancelled) that are under construction - one is near finished and should open literally any day, the other has just started. I don't see any reason they wouldn't be finished though, since everything is already rolling and physically happening.

I think the NYC ones were at various stages of pre-planning or planning but I'm not sure if I recall reading if they broke ground or not yet. I remember at least one of them was "power ready" or something, I forget the exact term.

Feels weird to even say this, but it would be even CRAZIER if they just halt new stations mid-install after breaking ground and all of that. But at this point, it's hard to actually rule anything out.

crazy to halt mid install?...yeah... they would never do anything crazy like that. Firing the entire staff after all is not crazy.

 

[ack154]

crazy to halt mid install?...yeah... they would never do anything crazy like that. Firing the entire staff after all is not crazy.

The whole thing is honestly so hard to comprehend. Literally, what most would consider to be one of their biggest competitive advantages... absolutely torched... via email.

 

[Blue highway]

The whole thing is honestly so hard to comprehend. Literally, what most would consider to be one of their biggest competitive advantages... absolutely torched... via email.

The knock-on effect of this is not yet appreciated. I've written earlier that I think this will crater EV sales as people realize that the promise of generally improving DCFC is not happening... and things are going the other way in terms of congestion and reliability.

 

[flapjake314]

Elon's very real and self-destructive character flaws may be triggered by politics but aren't political in and of themselves.

For example, it was perfectly OK to discuss Steve Job's mercurial and self-destructive personality but I don't think politics was really ever part of his public persona. If anything, he kept away from it.

as i've grown older i've developed an aversion to a**holes. i've realized no matter how beneficial the relationship (personal, business, employer/employee, elected leaders, customer) seems at the time, you are completely certain to be screwed by that person at some point. and if you stay in that relationship it'll happen over and over until one of you are dead.

 

[CTZ]

This does honestly not surprise me that much. I sold every Tesla share I owned when I heard he was going to concentrate on self-driving over a Model 2. We aren't even close to 100% self-driving taxis IMO. He might be a visionary but he's also completely nuts, irrational and unreliable. This will hurt the EV world that is already in danger of stalling out lately.

 

[Logal727]

goin full Howard Hughes ?

 

[ChasingCoral]

Think these folks would rather go to Rivian or Lucid. Heck companies like BYD would align with these folks than a monolithic organization like Ford.

Maybe. Some might be looking for more stable employment after this.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I just listened to Kyle and Francie's discussion of the Supercharger team massacre. One thing Kyle brought up several times really makes me wonder: why haven't we seen ANY v4 superchargers yet. v3 and below aren't 1000v so they aren't NEVI compliant.

We've seen v4 dispensers but they are still on v3 boxes and limited to 500v. Could this be at the heart of Musk's ire? It will be really interesting when folks figure out they can tell us things without violating NDA, or they blow off the NDA, or they leak.

Musk could be pissed that their chargers have no way to fully take advantage of the charge rate of their newest vehicle (Cyberwedgie).

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