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

[hack-e]

Everything in Musk's orbit experiences RUD: Super Heavy Boosters, Starships, Supercharger Teams.

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[EELinneman]

DCFC with internal batteries cost more in capital outlay..... BUT

if there isn't 480-v 3-phase power close by, a regular DCFC above 50kw isn't possible.

and, if the local utility has 'demand charges' based on max power requested... the first charge you sell incurs that cost, even if you one sell one charge a month. if you have 4 handles, each capable of 150kw, and ONE TIME during the month all are in use you get billed thousands of dollars. Many utilities do not have special EV charger rates yet, so demand charges can kill a project.

variable rates with Time Of Use are also an issue... more utilities are cranking up time of use rates such that 3p-10p is triple the cost of other times... and that is prime time for when travellers might need DCFC, which shoots the margin for the owner of the charger. It's way better to buffer up several hundred kWhr when cost is low, and sell it when its high; pays for the batteries very quickly.

The contracts for power with companies like Tesla are individually negotiated. There are terms of service, but it is likely not a TOU like retail and residential customers have. If there are batteries involved then the generation and transmission company will oversupply when they can to balance the undersupply when they have to.

I spent two years at a generation company here in Denver managing projects for SOX compliance. One of those was the tools that worked with the state and PUC on these types of contracts. These really big customers get some pretty attractive rates.

Major manufacturers and data centers often negotiate multiple suppliers to ensure reliability. I would imagine that Tesla does the same.

 

[EELinneman]

Everything in Musk's orbit experiences RUD: Super Heavy Boosters, Starships, Supercharger Teams.

And, all of them get government funding one way or another!

 

[AKgrampy]

Small town down the road from my small town.

Each cabinet is 4 megawatt Tesla battery bank. Deployed by the local utility that is in "hurricane alley"

My youngest lives close by and he didn't even know it was there, but has had power when I don't several times

These are what I had read/heard were deployed at some of the newest charging stations and were buying low/selling high.

Example: 3¢/45¢?

It seems possible at that size but I doubt the price differential is that great. Still might be a viable business model with a decent ROI. They would be better off; however, just selling power back to the utility.

 

[mkhuffman]

To put things into perspective, if Musk's $56B pay package were applied to the "worker bees" instead of him, at an average salary of $150K a year they'd be able to afford just over 37,000 "worker bees" for a period of ten years (the same period as Musk's pay package covers).

Tesla has laid off ~14,000 people as a function of their head count reduction. If Musk weren't so greedy, they could have literally kept all those people they laid off and still come out ahead financially. It is a level of income inequality that is - frankly - disgusting, and should be called out accordingly.

Allowing this type of disconnect in earning ability is exactly what is driving the growing income inequality in western civilizations. The "little guy" is expected to sacrifice while the person at the top just hoards more and more wealth. It's decimating the middle class and leading to all sorts of societal problems (crumbling infrastructure, housing affordability, people having fewer/no kids meaning there's nobody to take care of an aging populace).

We need laws that tie executive pay (inclusive of stock options and other benefits) to a ratio of the lowest paid person in the company, effectively restricting how much the person at the top is allowed to earn vs. the person at the bottom. Unfortunately, the people who make the laws are also bought and paid for, so I'm not sure how to get there...

I disagree with everything in your post. And it is not relevant to the discussion about the staff reductions at Tesla that will impact the growth of the SC network. Keep this socialist class warfare BS to yourself, please.

 

[Rory]

https://electrek.co/2024/05/03/read...sending-to-suppliers-amid-supercharger-chaos/ Read the wild email Tesla is sending to suppliers amid Supercharger chaos

 

[Snakebitten]

The email message is entirely believable.
The rest is just commentary.
Conjecture.
Opinion.

 

[Mache_Nor]

I disagree with everything in your post. And it is not relevant to the discussion about the staff reductions at Tesla that will impact the growth of the SC network. Keep this socialist class warfare BS to yourself, please.

Yup, you show ‘em horrible socialists with free healthcare, education and working rights!
*Angry freedom noises*

 

[SpongeBad]

I disagree with everything in your post. And it is not relevant to the discussion about the staff reductions at Tesla that will impact the growth of the SC network. Keep this socialist class warfare BS to yourself, please.

You are entitled to believe what you believe, as am I. If you don't want to read what I have to say, feel free to block me, but you don't get to muzzle me for having a different opinion. Not sure how you can disagree with "everything", though ... the first paragraph is just math.

As far as how it's relevant to this discussion, let me spell it out for you. Musk's throwing a temper tantrum because the leadership in the SC division at Tesla was not aggressive enough in cutting head count to reduce Tesla's overhead (see how this is DIRECTLY related to the staff reductions as Tesla?). This has resulted in him firing the entire team. He is simultaneously fighting to get himself a $56 BILLION dollar pay package that could easily fund those 500 SC jobs for decades. Instead of firing everyone, maybe he should lead by example and take a pay cut. That'd require him not to be a greedy, entitled, selfish asshole, though, so I won't hold my breath.

 

[Socalsp3]

Gotta pay for that twitter purchase

 

[Mach-Lee]

We're a couple days into this now, and it seems like the consensus is Rebecca Tinucci resisted making sweeping cuts that Elon demanded in order to protect her Supercharger team and project stakeholders. So in a fit of rage, Elon fired the entire team in retaliation to show who's boss. There was no strategy behind it whatsoever, it was completely on a whim. Absolutely nobody saw it coming, it was not planned. Everything Tesla says from now on will just be damage control.

If you go and read about this, Elon has what's been termed a "Demon mode", where he shuts down, gets extremely cold towards others around him, and takes drastic measures. A few hours later he'll be back to normal like nothing happened. He also won't quite remember the details of what he said or did in demon mode. It's likely a result of his bipolar disorder, Asperger's syndrome, and the childhood trauma he experienced from his father relentlessly yelling at him for getting beat up at school. He typically will not rescind his actions because that would show ineptness, instead he forces everyone around him to deal with the new reality and move on as if it was always part of the plan. That's Elon.

Unfortunately this confirms what we all know, he's very smart, but too unstable to be trusted. Something will set him off, and he will burn it all down out of spite, no matter the cost. The other automakers will remember this incident for the next decade and will probably refuse to deal with Tesla ever again unless Musk is gone. There is just too much money at stake when he does this. The Germans are already in discussions about reversing their NACS adoption plans, it's expected some of the other automakers may follow suit and continue with CCS. Either way, this is a black swan event that will be talked about for years into the future and will have a significant impact on the future direction of EV charging as a whole.

Some articles about Musk's "Demon mode":
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2023/10/16/biographer-describes-elon-musks-demon-mode/
https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/elon-musk-demon-mode/69f38af7-7caf-47e2-b853-14448d807909

 

[RickMachE]

Years ago I worked for a company owned by people that were, and are, worth billions. Their products are likely in your home today, they're in every grocery store and also will be given on upcoming holidays.

They are nasty people, over the time I worked for them I saw many dismissed for reasons that were unprofessional (on the part of the owners), emotional, and simply cruel. They were know for giving the company holiday gifts followed by layoff notices. I was on my way out when a restructuring had them go from monthly week-long appearances to once a quarter. That made it tolerable for a time, but eventually I had it.

What I learned in my career is that working for a person with traits like Musk is a soul killer. People who experience it and stay are never the same, and many are simply ass kissers, or greedy.

To this day, no product made by my former employer enters my home, and I encourage everyone I know personally to do the same. Many continue to spread the same word. Some are sycophants and followed them to other companies. They lack a value system.

No one in my family will buy a Tesla as long as Musk is CEO or benefits from ownership. Nor solar products or any other product he makes. I grudgingly charged with Tesla on a recent trip because of widespread issues I have had on previous trips, and knowing it benefits me more than it does him. Going forward if EA and others improve I may not do that.

Nobody is worth the pay package he wants, and because he can manipulate results to hit targets without any oversight it should never be given. I would love to see the institutional investors get together and toss him out at some point.

 

[ChehRob]

Rory - thanks for that 60 plus page link to Colorado's discussion of DC chargers and battery augments. I will get it read today and make some further comments on this or another thread.

 

[mkhuffman]

You are entitled to believe what you believe, as am I. If you don't want to read what I have to say, feel free to block me, but you don't get to muzzle me for having a different opinion. Not sure how you can disagree with "everything", though ... the first paragraph is just math.

As far as how it's relevant to this discussion, let me spell it out for you. Musk's throwing a temper tantrum because the leadership in the SC division at Tesla was not aggressive enough in cutting head count to reduce Tesla's overhead (see how this is DIRECTLY related to the staff reductions as Tesla?). This has resulted in him firing the entire team. He is simultaneously fighting to get himself a $56 BILLION dollar pay package that could easily fund those 500 SC jobs for decades. Instead of firing everyone, maybe he should lead by example and take a pay cut. That'd require him not to be a greedy, entitled, selfish asshole, though, so I won't hold my breath.

Musk's pay is irrelevant. And posting that the government should limit the income of those who have more than you is not only irrelevant, it is socialist class warfare that that is a cancer in the free world.

I won't block you because I don't have a problem with different opinions, I just have a problem with you bringing it into a car forum. This is what the forum admin warned us not to do, and you did it.

Yup, you show ‘em horrible socialists with free healthcare, education and working rights!
*Angry freedom noises*

Wow. The fact you think those things are free is amazing.

(Edited to soften my reply. It was too harsh.)

 

[CarlSagan82]

" There was no strategy behind it whatsoever, it was completely on a whim. Absolutely nobody saw it coming, it was not planned. Everything Tesla says from now on will just be damage control. "

Impossible! Everything this stable genius does is...genius! He is playing chess while all us poor are playing checkers. There is a master plan behind all of this. Buying twitter was just the start to the settlement of Mars!
/s

Yeah so in reality its what we all thought it was. So its done. He did it. The reason he did it is insane but its done. So where does Tesla go from here? I dont think AI and robotaxi will happen in the next 5 years. How long can he remain CEO?

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