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?

 

[terranx]

While not frequent, it does happen. At the Irvine, CA - Main Street location, it opened in December 2020 with 24 urban stalls and then added 16 V3 stalls in late 2023. While technically they didn't upgrade the existing stalls, this was definitely an upgrade to the site and an addition in number of stalls.

There have been other sites (such as one in Bartow, CA) that have had the number of stalls increased.

I've seen multiple V2 sites have new V3 stalls added out here on the East Coast as well.

 

[Kevy Baby]

The ones here in NE Texas were 36¢ last year then dropped to 31¢ around the first of the year. Sometime within the last number of weeks, they went back up to 35¢.

I had someone post on FB a screenshot of an $0.80 peak rate, but I cannot locate it. But I did find (thanks to Bruce) a screenshot of the peek rate at a local charger at $0.34 in May 2023, but up to $0.48 one year later (today).

By no means do I figure this to be definitive, but it was one example that I could conclusively document.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

In all the years that Tesla superchargers have been around in my area, I have never, ever, seen a single station upgraded, either in hardware (ie. V2 to V3) or capacity by adding more chargers. And, there are dozens upon dozens of stations ranging from urban to V3 here. I’m thinking that’s just not what Tesla does.

I know 2 stations which got upgraded: Armore / OK and Waco / TX.

both had been *epic* disasters on busy weekends for YEARS before Tesla finally expanded them. So yeah - they it wasn't high on their priority list and probably even lower now with the entire team fired.

 

[NewEnglandCld]

This already had a fast and direct impact on me.

I am leading a project to install chargers at my condo building and a hotel property and we were working with Tesla commercial charging. We were set to be able to activate it for pay for use, and I got the hardware yesterday (to be installed on a couple of weeks) but all emails now bounce back and none of my contacts are there anymore.

Not sure if we need to send our hardware back and go with another provider now or what…

 

[MP3Mike]

This already had a fast and direct impact on me.

I am leading a project to install chargers at my condo building and a hotel property and we were working with Tesla commercial charging. We were set to be able to activate it for pay for use, and I got the hardware yesterday (to be installed on a couple of weeks) but all emails now bounce back and none of my contacts are there anymore.

Not sure if we need to send our hardware back and go with another provider now or what…

I saw someone else posted that they were able to commission chargers through the commercial charging program yesterday...

Are you saying that emails to [email protected] are bouncing?

I wouldn't be surprised if the remaining steps are mostly automated once you get them installed and fill out the form: Commercial Services Product Registration form.

 

[NewEnglandCld]

I saw someone else posted that they were able to commission chargers through the commercial charging program yesterday...

Are you saying that emails to [email protected] are bouncing?

I wouldn't be surprised if the remaining steps are mostly automated once you get them installed and fill out the form: Commercial Services Product Registration form.

Any chance you could point me to that thread? Would be curious to chat with the person who was able to make it work…

Emails to commercial charging are not bouncing (just going unreplied). But emails to the individuals I was working with at Tesla all bounce back (got a loop of about 10 please direct your emails to… yesterday).

I would agree steps are probably automated, but still need to figure out how to make it work/they are committed to the infrastructure for the pay for charge. I’d hate to install the hardware and then they disable that functionality.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

This already had a fast and direct impact on me.

I am leading a project to install chargers at my condo building and a hotel property and we were working with Tesla commercial charging. We were set to be able to activate it for pay for use, and I got the hardware yesterday (to be installed on a couple of weeks) but all emails now bounce back and none of my contacts are there anymore.

Not sure if we need to send our hardware back and go with another provider now or what…

That's some real world reportage.

I tend to favour the diminished mental capacity for measured decision making theory when that is the result.

 

[MP3Mike]

Any chance you could point me to that thread? Would be curious to chat with the person who was able to make it work…

It was a post on X, which I can't find right now. But this person was in contact with someone that was able to commission their Wall Connectors:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1786151721900630250

Though it seems like there might still be a step to get access to the management dashboard pending.

 

[ThomasD]

I'm not surprised about all the Tesla layoffs. I was surprised about the Supercharger layoffs. Tesla has significantly lowered prices on their cars over the past year. People thought it was great that prices were being lowered. But that also affected the resale value of the cars. No one questioned the fact that Tesla was lowering their prices constantly. Well now we know why. Tesla revenue is down and they are not selling as many cars as they used to.

 

[brianman]

I've seen multiple V2 sites have new V3 stalls added out here on the East Coast as well.

Boss: We need "moar, better" charging in <region>. What options do we have?
Underling 1: We can upgrade 10 stalls to the latest version.
Underling 2: We can add 10 stalls with the latest version.
Boss: Price difference.
<mumbling>
Underlings 1&2: 10%
Boss: I think you know which option is better.

 

[bucknejo]

What happens when battery technology advances to 400 extreme weather highway miles on a single charge? Do thousands of SC stalls get the action they need to stay profitable? Perhaps the number of locations that exist today are close to achieving that future state. And maybe Elon already has that battery technology or it is in reach of competitors that makes the case for pulling the rug right now.

Speculation!

 

[gearchruncher]

What happens when battery technology advances to 400 extreme weather highway miles on a single charge?

Having 400 miles of real range on my car would have probably only reduced my total supercharger kWh by about 25%. Public L2 charging just isn't that good, and it's mostly stuck at 6kWh so bigger batteries just take longer to charge. The miles per hour of charge will not be getting better, and in fact they are getting worse as EV's are just putting in bigger batteries and getting less efficient (See the Hummers, Rivians, F150's, etc).

Plus, lots of people use superchargers as their only source of charging. They might get fewer visits, but they would charge more energy on those visits, and charging is priced per kWh.

 

[DuncanM]

What happens when battery technology advances to 400 extreme weather highway miles on a single charge? Do thousands of SC stalls get the action they need to stay profitable? Perhaps the number of locations that exist today are close to achieving that future state. And maybe Elon already has that battery technology or it is in reach of competitors that makes the case for pulling the rug right now.

Speculation!

Geez...
Q: what percentage of cars on the road in North America are EVs?

Answer: about 1%!


Currently new EV registrations are running at about 5%. We're nowhere near the required number of DCFCs needed to service the increase in EV registrations and the increasing % of EV adoption.

If there's one thing that's certain is that we need way more DCFC stations.

 

[ForeverFree]

In all the years that Tesla superchargers have been around in my area, I have never, ever, seen a single station upgraded, either in hardware (ie. V2 to V3) or capacity by adding more chargers. And, there are dozens upon dozens of stations ranging from urban to V3 here. I’m thinking that’s just not what Tesla does.

In my time as a Tesla owner, I’ve seen the key US-395 Supercharger in Lone Pine expanded from 4 to 8 to 12.

For peak periods, double that would really help.

 

[gearchruncher]

All of this was clearly well planned as part of a strategy by Tesla after a hard decision by Elon. Because you send this kind of thing out days afterwards when it's all well planned:

To all concerned:

You may be aware that there has been a recent adjustment with the Supercharger organization which is presently undergoing a sudden and thorough restructuring. If you have already received this email, please disregard it as we are attempting to connect with our suppliers and contractors. As part of this process, we are in the midst of establishing new leadership roles, prioritizing projects, and streamlining our payment procedures. Due to the transitional nature of this phase, we are asking for your patience with our response time.

I understand that this period of change may be challenging and that patience is not easy when expecting to be paid, however, I want to express my sincere appreciation for your understanding and support as we navigate through this transition. At this time, please hold on breaking ground on any newly awarded construction projects and planned pre-construction walks. If currently working on an active Supercharging construction site, please continue. Contact [email redacted] for further questions, comments, and concerns. Additionally, hold on working on any new material orders. Contact [email redacted] for further questions, comments, and concerns. If waiting on delayed payment, please contact [email redacted] for a status update. Thank you for your cooperation and patience.

Read the wild email Tesla is sending to suppliers amid Supercharger chaos

After firing its Supercharger team, Tesla is unsurprisingly finding it hard to manage contractors who previously worked with the team.

electrek.co

The hilarious thing is people reporting that any email they send to the Supercharger team just ends up in an email loop of "please contact X" but those people are gone too. From reddit:

I'm work for a Hilton franchisee and we are in the process of adding Tesla level 2 chargers at our hotel sites, subcontracted through Tesla. I emailed our tesla contact, and got an endless loop of "This email is no longer valid, please direct all correspondence to xxxxxx"... then got the same email from xxxxxx and so on and so forth -- until it ended at "Please direct all correspondence to Rebecca Tinucci"... oops

So much for it only being the Supercharger team, when L2 chargers at hotels are being impacted. But yeah, I'm sure the maintenance of existing superchargers was a different team and is 100% fine. That's how corporate organizations work. They put design, install, manufacturing and payment for all charging under one director, but maintenance of superchargers under another director.

My favorite comment chain on Reddit:

The people responsible for the decisions involved should be held accountable.

Response:

It’s one person

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

Somewhere in one of these threads is reporting of a fired maintenance guy saying he was flat stick fixing superchargers and now he is not required.

I figure it's all coming crashing down unless there's a U turn.

 

[gearchruncher]

he was flat stick fixing superchargers

The USA and Australia do not share a common language, we're gonna need a translation here!

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

The USA and Australia do not share a common language, we're gonna need a translation here!

Flat out, like lizard drinking, as they say in South Africa. Working all day every day.

 

[gearchruncher]

Flat out, like lizard drinking, as they say in South Africa. Working all day every day.

I have learned so many things about other cultures today. See, firing the SC team was a good thing! It's bringing people together.

 

[brainhouston]

My take is since NACS is adopted, Elon probably counting on others to expand it further...
Kinda like gas stations are their own companies.. u don't see any ICE car companies owning gas stations...
Eventually all chargers might be owned by 3rd parties...