Elon Musk fired the top of Tesla’s Supercharger division late final month, alongside along with her total 500-person group. It was a complicated resolution that raised extra questions than solutions, particularly contemplating that Musk had just lately satisfied each different automaker to agree to make their electrical autos suitable with Tesla’s chargers. Assuming Reuters’ newest report is correct, although, firing the Supercharger group wasn’t a enterprise resolution or a shift in technique. It was merely Musk getting mad at somebody for pushing again on what he was asking for and punishing the whole group as a part of his tantrum.
In accordance with Reuters’ sources, Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s head of charging, had already laid off between 15 and 20 p.c of the Supercharger group when Musk started pushing for extra layoffs. When she pushed again, he not solely fired her but in addition removed her total group on the similar time. Since then, Musk has been trying to do injury management, tweeting about persevering with to broaden the charging community and reportedly trying to rehire a few of the laid-off Supercharger staffers.
The clearout reportedly got here after a change in management and seems to be a part of a wider sample of chaos and confusion happening inside Tesla:
Tinucci was considered one of few high-ranking feminine Tesla executives. She just lately began reporting on to Musk, following the departure of battery-and-energy chief Drew Baglino, in response to 4 former Supercharger-team staffers. They mentioned Baglino had traditionally overseen the charging division with out a lot involvement from Musk.
The charging-team layoffs mark the newest drama in a tumultuous yr for Tesla as Musk has shut down or delayed a number of core efforts meant to drive the fast EV gross sales progress that buyers have anticipated. As a substitute, Musk now says Tesla will shift its predominant focus to self-driving automobiles, a fiercely aggressive and riskier enterprise that would take years to develop.
The corporate posted its first decline in auto gross sales since 2020 within the first quarter amid fierce competitors from Chinese language electric-vehicle makers and sagging worldwide EV demand. Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-awaited reasonably priced automotive often known as the Mannequin 2. That has thrown into doubt Tesla’s plans for brand new factories in Mexico and India, the place Musk had been anticipated to journey final month to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier than canceling on the final minute. And a number of executives have departed amid deep companywide layoffs.
And but, along with canceling 4 deliberate Supercharger websites in New York, Tesla’s world provide supervisor just lately despatched an electronic mail to contractors and suppliers — and seen by Reuters — telling them to “please maintain on breaking floor on any newly awarded building initiatives.” It additionally included the road, “I perceive that this era of change could also be difficult, and that endurance is just not straightforward when anticipating to be paid!”
With the Supercharger group gone, Tesla introduced within the power group to take over and deal with winding down numerous charging initiatives. In addition they apparently obtained little retraining to make sure they may do their jobs effectively, with one contractor saying the Tesla staff he’s spoken with because the mass firing “don’t know a factor.”
In accordance with two former staff, Tesla’s power division, which sells photo voltaic methods and battery storage have been already struggling to deal with their workload earlier than they have been pressured to tackle the Supercharger group’s workload. So it got here as a shock when Musk later mentioned Tesla “nonetheless plans to develop the Supercharger community, simply at a slower tempo,” and claimed that “Tesla will spend effectively over $500M increasing our Supercharger community to create hundreds of NEW chargers this yr.”
Whereas $500 million is actually some huge cash, it additionally reportedly a lot decrease than what the group had deliberate to put money into chargers, with one estimate suggesting a 77 p.c lower within the variety of Superchargers that Tesla was planning to construct in 2024. Nonetheless, overseeing the set up of these charging hubs will probably require a group of a number of hundred staff that Tesla not has in place.
The layoffs additionally have an effect on contractors that introduced on staff of their very own and budgeted for the yr based mostly on agreements with Tesla. Musk’s resolution to eliminate the Supercharging group and reduce on Supercharger enlargement hurts these firms, too. “It’s simply unlucky that now they’re caught holding the bag on all these totally different initiatives,” one former worker advised Reuters. “It’s actually unhappy to see all these relationships burned and other people be actually indignant —rightfully so.”
