Entire Supercharging Team Fired?

News yesterday is that the entire 500+ person word-wide SC team has been let go. That is alarming. Why would Elon sack the execs and all the employees of this important part of Tesla's business? Could Tesla be selling the SC network off to a third party? Opinions? Other theories?

 

[dramsey]

This entire thread is speculation. The answer I quoted is the most logical explanation.

This thread is based on the news reports that Tesla has fired their entire supercharger team.

I'm pretty sure that actually happened. I mean, if you can't trust our news media, who can you trust?

Everything after that, including your explanation-- however logical it might be-- is speculation.

 

[terranx]

The\is thread is based on the news reports that Tesla has fired their entire supercharger team.

I'm pretty sure that actually happened. I mean, if you can't trust our news media, who can you trust?

Everything after that, including your explanation-- however logical it might be-- is speculation.

Surely random posters on TMC are a more reliable source than virtually every major media outlet

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I don't have twitter, but saw this posted in another article. Elon apparently responded specifically to certain sites:

Twitter Embed

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785450753571557632

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785461086688256361

if they use federal funding for ongoing projects... they better finish those ...

 

[KelvinMace]

Conspiratorial alt-right fringe silliness has begun to arrest his mind. This is not something that tends to go away. It is a "progressive" condition.

Can I assume your post was in jest, given your use of this term?

Well, he is a stable genius in the same way Trump is a "stable genius".

 

[gtae07]

I've somehow survived several rounds of layoffs where I work, and over the last 16 years the whole process has gone from "let's trim spending, cut hours, offer voluntary packages, and have rolling furloughs first, before we cut headcount" to the latest two rounds where it was "everything is still fine" right up until the quarterly report when it wasn't, and that night everyone at director level and up got notified with "you will cut (20-50)% of your direct reports and all your contractors tomorrow, make it happen". Within a year of those two successive cuts, the CEO stated "that may have been a mistake" in a company-wide meeting...

So while I won't discount the idea that it's Elon having a fit of spite, it also would not surprise me if this is just typical corporate "make massive cuts in headcount to achieve short-term target numbers" BS. I would agree that Tesla at least needs its own Ms. Shotwell to take over the business side of things and let Elon do the visionary inspirational stuff.


I'll play devil's advocate for a moment though... we focus on the Supercharger network, but fast charger networks in general seem to hog all the attention. Lots of complaints about lines, wanting more sites in a certain area... are fast chargers really the answer? For travel, obviously you need them along highways and such... but shouldn't "The Answer" for urban demand be lots more (and lots cheaper) L2 charging points?

 

[Rico321]

Asana CEO calls Tesla the next Enron and says Elon Musk has misled customers

"I guess just a PSA to investors out there: you only get eventual justice with the SEC, if you even get that," Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz said.

fortune.com

 

[Midpack]

Surely random posters on TMC are a more reliable source than virtually every major media outlet

There seem to more (opinionated, unqualified) armchair quarterbacks at TMC than the other subject forums I visit regularly. Sad. Fortunately there are many great, helpful posts here as well - you just have to ignore the chaff, all forums/social media have some.

 

[SSonnentag]

This thread is based on the news reports that Tesla has fired their entire supercharger team.

I'm pretty sure that actually happened. I mean, if you can't trust our news media, who can you trust?

Everything after that, including your explanation-- however logical it might be-- is speculation.

The news/media are the last people anyone should trust.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I've somehow survived several rounds of layoffs where I work, and over the last 16 years the whole process has gone from "let's trim spending, cut hours, offer voluntary packages, and have rolling furloughs first, before we cut headcount" to the latest two rounds where it was "everything is still fine" right up until the quarterly report when it wasn't, and that night everyone at director level and up got notified with "you will cut (20-50)% of your direct reports and all your contractors tomorrow, make it happen". Within a year of those two successive cuts, the CEO stated "that may have been a mistake" in a company-wide meeting...

So while I won't discount the idea that it's Elon having a fit of spite, it also would not surprise me if this is just typical corporate "make massive cuts in headcount to achieve short-term target numbers" BS. I would agree that Tesla at least needs its own Ms. Shotwell to take over the business side of things and let Elon do the visionary inspirational stuff.


I'll play devil's advocate for a moment though... we focus on the Supercharger network, but fast charger networks in general seem to hog all the attention. Lots of complaints about lines, wanting more sites in a certain area... are fast chargers really the answer? For travel, obviously you need them along highways and such... but shouldn't "The Answer" for urban demand be lots more (and lots cheaper) L2 charging points?

well those are actually fairly easy to install/ build and *plenty* of places offer them. My work has 12x Ford branded L2 charging stalls in the garage and with the adapter they work just fine. you could also just put a bunch of NEMA 14-50 outlets in a garage or so. lots of possibilities = solutions.

Fast charging is more complex

 

[ucmndd]

Head of HR has apparently left the company now too…

 

[DrChaos]

From this article it seems those two executives and their teams were cut to set an example, and Elon was not happy with how deep of a cut they did in the previous round of layoffs.

That's still bad management---if you had a manager under you, some random "Herbert Wankerman" and not "Elon Musk", who did the same thing to his teams in a critical function, would that be considered a wise and effective choice? Surely not. It's very much "bossy" behavior and not "leadership".

If the manager in question really didn't cut enough then the response is to bypass them with HR, meet with their reports and HR and do it yourself, and lower the bonus/salary for the manager.

And the argument that supercharger development really shouldn't be cut much now is a good one too---these are long term projects and the demand on superchargers is proportional to cumulative sales, not immediate sales---and Tesla is standing at the moment of total victory and dominance for decades. Now is the time to press for victory and not let anyone catch up.

 

[DrChaos]

I'll play devil's advocate for a moment though... we focus on the Supercharger network, but fast charger networks in general seem to hog all the attention. Lots of complaints about lines, wanting more sites in a certain area... are fast chargers really the answer? For travel, obviously you need them along highways and such... but shouldn't "The Answer" for urban demand be lots more (and lots cheaper) L2 charging points?

No, only if they are on domestic residences. Nobody is going to spend 4-5 hours in a random parking lot. 20 mins, maybe. The answer for urban demand is forcing apartments and HOAs to agree like California does.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

key words are "not prevented," and that, from this former Fed, is true.

you are not prevented from buying a firearm as non citizen either *if you lie on the purchase form*... you might or might not get caught though. but you don't need to show passport / birth certificate when buying a firearm. just a DL which gets issued to non citizens just fine.

same apparently goes for voting registration. you commit a felony by lying about your citizenship status and hence states cross-reference voter rolls to find those cases.

again - Texas looked into this with a commission for over a year and wasn't able to show anything meaningful.... so while it's not prevented it seems to be very rare.

 

[804son]

That's still bad management---if you had a manager under you, some random "Herbert Wankerman" and not "Elon Musk", who did the same thing to his teams in a critical function, would that be considered a wise and effective choice? Surely not. It's very much "bossy" behavior and not "leadership".

If the manager in question really didn't cut enough then the response is to bypass them with HR, meet with their reports and HR and do it yourself, and lower the bonus/salary for the manager.

And the argument that supercharger development really shouldn't be cut much now is a good one too---these are long term projects and the demand on superchargers is proportional to cumulative sales, not immediate sales---and Tesla is standing at the moment of total victory and dominance for decades. Now is the time to press for victory and not let anyone catch up.

What you're describing is effective leadership, I'm not sure that's what is going on at Tesla any longer. The recent decisions and product evolutions don't seem to be aligned with broad customer wants. My thoughts are the recent drop in demand is a sign of this.

 

[Genie]

I work for a small, mature, stable company that designs and manufactures industrial machinery.

Days after Tesla's move, one of the owners of the company unexpectedly announced that we were cutting 10% of our work force.

Among those that were cut were ALL of the employees who were responsible for final assembly and testing of one of our product lines - in short, we just fired an entire department. All were kind, hard-working, loyal employees - most of them long-term. One was sending his kids through college. Another was undergoing cancer treatment. We were told that these cuts were made due to performance issues and that the slowdown lessened the burden on the company by giving others time to cross-train and fill the roles and find and train replacements to prepare for busier times.

Those of us who remained were stunned at the news. The rest of the day was pretty gloomy and morale took a hit.

The next morning, I observed several employees cleaning and organizing their work areas and becoming more productive than I've ever seen them.

Admittedly, the department that received the cuts had been loafing along with "good enough" for years without any significant improvements or cost cuts.

Starting over is expected to allow the department to reset with new blood resulting in a faster assembly, better quality, and more efficient productivity.

Letting a division “loaf along for years” without fixing the problems is poor management.
Firing that division because they were poorly managed is more poor management.

 

[DuncanM]

100% agree. there's a lot of single point of failure locations on many routes. If Clayton / NM ever goes out ... a lot of folks on the Dallas-Denver corridor will be stranded and forced to slow charge for hours at a NEMA 14-50 RV park there. Now on Dallas- Houston / Austin / San Antonio there's plenty of locations - so even if one fails you are fine.

There's a number of CCS1 DCFC stations near Clayton NM: I keep my CCS1 adapter in my car at all times.

 

[804son]

There's a number of CCS1 DCFC stations near Clayton NM: I keep my CCS1 adapter in my car at all times.

Tesla needs to have an option to include Public DCFC chargers in the Navigation.

 

[zroger73]

Nobody is going to spend 4-5 hours in a random parking lot. 20 mins, maybe.

84% of my charging this year has been in "random parking lots" for about 1.5 hours per day.

16% has been at home.

0% has been at Superchargers.

- Nobody

 

[stopcrazypp]

That's still bad management---if you had a manager under you, some random "Herbert Wankerman" and not "Elon Musk", who did the same thing to his teams in a critical function, would that be considered a wise and effective choice? Surely not. It's very much "bossy" behavior and not "leadership".

If the manager in question really didn't cut enough then the response is to bypass them with HR, meet with their reports and HR and do it yourself, and lower the bonus/salary for the manager.

The demand was to cut people that do not perform and to keep the ones that do and are necessary for continued operation. A manager typically has a much better idea of people working under them than HR, given the manager is the one working day to day with them. As others posted up thread, this is a fairly common management tactic.

And the argument that supercharger development really shouldn't be cut much now is a good one too---these are long term projects and the demand on superchargers is proportional to cumulative sales, not immediate sales---and Tesla is standing at the moment of total victory and dominance for decades. Now is the time to press for victory and not let anyone catch up.

What changed is with the network opening to all the other automakers, superchargers are no longer a moat. If it is like other charge networks, it's actually a net money loser. That wasn't a problem in the past given it was a unique selling point for Teslas, so any losses served as a form of advertising. This is no longer the case, so it makes far less sense to focus as much investment into expanding the network, especially given the deal that was eventually worked out didn't require any of the other automakers to invest upfront to pay for their share of demand.

 

[MD70]

And the argument that supercharger development really shouldn't be cut much now is a good one too---these are long term projects and the demand on superchargers is proportional to cumulative sales, not immediate sales---and Tesla is standing at the moment of total victory and dominance for decades. Now is the time to press for victory and not let anyone catch up.

This, I agree 100%.
Tesla has laid the foundations to dominate but it seems Musk is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Putting aside the RT, all Tesla had to do was keep producing one vehicle in each of the major categories whilst continuously increasing the charging network and building service centres to meet the demand as the cumulative number of cars increases.