Tesla fires whole Supercharger team [Update: Musk says supercharger growth will continue]

[Joe.....Montana]

I just don’t see China coming here and running the small car business. Sure you can point to Japan and SK. Japan had a car culture with racing heritage that is still followed today. SK, well they e slowly but surely gained here in the States.

As far as China, we know the quality, we know they steal intellectual property. It’ll take at least 2 decades. The problem with Tesla is their MSRP circus and their “all new” is just a redesign.

Take the “New Model 3” it’s the same Model 3. They took the vents off the front bumper of the SR and LR but added it to the Performance. Now the Performance looks more like the old Performance

China is starting to put real pressure on car makers in Europe. I think Chinese vehicles will be competitive in America if allowed. Imagine if America was willing to dump mass capital into all aspects of EV's? They would be incredibly cheap and further developed. That is what is happening in China.

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[climateguy]

NYTimes report

“If you would have told me a month ago that Tesla was a company that would notify people, some with 10-plus years of experience, who helped build the company to what it is today with nothing more than a ‘Dear Employee’ email in middle of the night,” Lane Chaplin, a former employee of the charging unit, wrote on LinkedIn, “I would have said you’re nuts.”

 

[JRT]

I have used it twice before in Wilmington. I need to test it again to make sure something isn't wrong with it now. The most frustrating part is there is absolutely no way to know where the issue is since superchargers don't give you any kind of information.

I had to setup my Lightning info in the Tesla app to start the charger, in my case no adapter so had to make sure it knew I did not have one so it only gave me those as an option. I'm not in a bind now and can wait for the free adapter as my big trip to Hattiesburg MS is my worst EV charging and there is no V3 or magic docks on my routes. I'll be hoping for Dealership charges to get me by and overnight destination chargers

 

[climateguy]

Fred is the editor in chief of Electrek

 

[detansinn]

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"

Lies lies lies. Elon is a Charlatan. Tesla is already bailing on leases for sites that were planned. This is about as credible as his announcement that they’re still doing the cheap Tesla next year after notifying employees and the vendors that the project was cancelled…. and sacking the guy leading new vehicle development.

 

[Grease Lightning]

Lies lies lies. Elon is a Charlatan. Tesla is already bailing on leases for sites that were planned.

While I hate Elon like most of us, canceling leases for future sites is not “lies lies lies”. It is exactly the statement he said, at a slower pace.

As cash became tighter due to slowing demand, maybe they are focusing only on the sites that they received subsidies. That would be start business practices, allows for expanding the footprint, and allows renovation of the existing V2 sites to meet the demands of their current cars and all the new CCS cars.

While I don’t agree with the mass departmental axing, being more focused in lean times is essential in business.

 

[RickLightning]

WTF? Wasn't Tesla given federal dollars to roll out more super chargers.? Are they just trying to pocket that now?

No.

They were given federal money to CONVERT existing locations to be compatible with CCS vehicles (i.e. Magic Docks), 3,500 by end of 2024, and promised to double the Supercharger network in the same period (but perhaps no money on that).

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

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/tesl...cluding-entire-supercharger-team/#more-360146

At a time when EVs are switching to the NACS standard and Tesla is opening up the Supercharger network to all EVs, this is not good.

At minimum, how do you maintain the current network when youve fired the 500+ person team responsible for it? Article also intimates that supercharging expansion may halt after planned sites are finished.

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

 

[Newton]

As far as China, we know the quality, we know they steal intellectual property. It’ll take at least 2 decades. The problem with Tesla is their MSRP circus and their “all new” is just a redesign.

That would be nice to believe but China is far ahead of the US in many areas and is eating our lunch in technological innovation. At this point it is not even close, we are worried that somebody at a University may be too "woke" or anti genocidal to speak to our sensitive students while they quietly produce cutting edge research.

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

Everyone needs to chill. these posts read like its the end of the world and no company in history has ever laid off workers. Before supercharger access, posts were all about how Tesla sucks, now we cant live without the NACS drug?

 

[Newton]

NYTimes report

“If you would have told me a month ago that Tesla was a company that would notify people, some with 10-plus years of experience, who helped build the company to what it is today with nothing more than a ‘Dear Employee’ email in middle of the night,” Lane Chaplin, a former employee of the charging unit, wrote on LinkedIn, “I would have said you’re nuts.”

Anybody who works for a young tech company needs to be aware of Founder's Syndrome. As a survivor of Silicone Valley back in the day I am well aware of it, and it is real. I know that Musk was not the founder or originator of Tesla, but that is a fairly common pathway to this situation.

The creative people who start the company need money, money moves in and gaslights everyone into thinking that they were the genius who was the motive force behind everything - and often times they don't even have the same passion for the product as the people who got kicked out.

 

[luebri]

Everyone needs to chill. these posts read like its the end of the world and no company in history has ever laid off workers. Before supercharger access, posts were all about how Tesla sucks, now we cant live without the NACS drug?

Pretty close. Reads More like a girl that’s had her heart broken twice. 1) when he dared to move too far from certain peoples beliefs on the political spectrum, seemingly triggered by the 2020 shutdowns. 2) when he throttled back the distribution of the NACS drug ~every ev owner salivates over.

I understand he’s not for everybody. Also at face value I don’t like this move either, but I’m also not naïve to think I’m smarter than him. he’s very shrewd and also very cutthroat. I don’t like vanilla CEO’s. We need people like him that push the bounds in many directions. I hope this move works out for the best… even if I don’t fully see it at this point. That said I do have my theories.

 

[Newton]

Tesla is probably the only company that has laid off an entire profitable (according to Tesla) division.

The one good thing here is the nature of EVs. If this was hydrogen and the largest hydrogen supplier just laid off their hydrogen division, this would be incredibly bleak. Instead there are many, many ways of charging EVs - which is exactly why the oil/gas monopolies are so afraid of them.

I recently charged at a Freewire charger attached to the back of an Arco station - it has a built in battery so it charges its storage battery off of regular industrial 3-phase 208V 80A power. Pretty much any business could install one of these and have a 150kW charger (yea Lightning!) with minimal installation cost. This was branded by BP Pulse and it worked just fine. When I got to my old hometown I then recharged on my Mom's 240V/20A wall plug that my Dad used for his table saw.

Meanwhile, I remember the gas crisis and how quickly it went from reading about some obscure countries in the Middle East having a tantrum to one hour waits for your 5 gallons of gas at the only station open in town, as long as it was Tuesday and your license plate ended in an even number.

 

[Newton]

I think you do yourself an injustice. Seriously, why do you think he is smarter than you are? This is a guy who thinks that it is impossible to save the Earth's climate, so humanity should move to Mars and change the climate on Mars! His view of science is based on young adult SF novels with a bit of Ayn Rand mixed in. He is not a god. He looks a lot more impressive if you didn't grow up reading the same young adult novels.

He is good at self promotion and fleecing investors, but that is pretty much a given for a tech company CEO.

 

[MichaelCA]

I dont think you guys understand how PACKED supercharger stations get here in California. Expansion of existing location is critical. Shifting focus back to where people have them and need them makes sense especially now that theyre opened to basically everybody else pending getting their NACS adapters. Im not saying tesla shouldn't expand to where it isnt, but satisfying current customers is more important than ones that are still on the fence.
56% of EV's are Teslas. With the high reputation of Tesla superchargers, I can see why expansion of existing locations is important. You dont want electricy americas reputation of always being either out of service or no stalls available.

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