Supercharger team sacked?

[Cardo]

Interesting news/rumour from Electrek today saying Tesla has sacked its ~500 strong Supercharger team. Apparently they will finish building the sites in progress, but no new ones will be going in.

Tesla conducting more layoffs, including entire Supercharger team

The newest round includes Tesla's policy team, director of new products, and the entire group responsible for Supercharger rollout.

electrek.co

I’m a bit puzzled by this one and can’t work out what’s going on with Musk. They have a big lead in charging and could quite happily take the charging crown in a number of countries, but now seem to be rowing away from this? Curious that this has also happened at the same time as Tesla have opened a whole bunch of UK SuCs to all vehicles.

I can’t decide whether I’d like to know what goes on in Musk’s head!

 

[Burley]

Is this why loads of SuC have become open to all overnight here? Revenge? Just opening up all the one's planned before they get made redundant?

 

[Roy Batty]

Is this why loads of SuC have become open to all overnight here? Revenge? Just opening up all the one's planned before they get made redundant?

I'd guess increased revenue, simple as that.

Musk HAS to have a good Q2 otherwise I'd guess he's gone.

 

[debrooker]

Very strange behaviour and really not good for the future of Tesla. Not sure this is the way, to get his $50bn bonus reinstated either.

As this will be my last Tesla, hopefully it can survive for 3 more years

Thunderfoot will be creaming his pants at this news

 

[Roy Batty]

This is a very short term move just to protect Musk I think, not going to be great if the Supercharger network starts to become less reliable without proper maintenance.

 

[tomorrowman]

The supercharger network will continue to grow at an appropriate rate.

 

[Cardo]

The supercharger network will continue to grow at an appropriate rate.

Can you provide some basis to this statement?

 

[tomorrowman]

Can you provide some basis to this statement?

Can you prove the opposite. As a Tesla investor I have spent the last few years filtering through so much garbage and FUD it gets quiet tiring (Reuters, Electrek being prime examples). Lots of news outlets taking a fact (if we are lucky) and drawing their own generally gloom and doom conclusions. It's been surprising learning that opinion is now considered news.

Interestingly despite it all Tesla keeps growing. Last I looked where at are about 60,000 superchargers worldwide and growing.

So Tesla is doing one of it's every X years pruning exercises (bloody tough on those impacted and I feel sorry for them), but ultimately all it does is reduce their OPEX.

So let's catch-up in 12 months on this thread and you can tell me how wrong I am .

Yes feel free to retort with 'oh he is just a Tesla fanboi', but I have skin in the game and if I suspect the company is going in the wrong direction I'm out.

 

[Buzzliteyear]

Could someone please pass me a bucket of salt, sounds like another hit piece like the Reuters one which said the model 2 was cancelled.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Can you prove the opposite. As a Tesla investor I have spent the last few years filtering through so much garbage and FUD it gets quiet tiring (Reuters, Electrek being prime examples). Lots of news outlets taking a fact (if we are lucky) and drawing their own generally gloom and doom conclusions. It's been surprising learning that opinion is now considered news.

Interestingly despite it all Tesla keeps growing. Last I looked where at are about 60,000 superchargers worldwide and growing.

So Tesla is doing one of it's every X years pruning exercises (bloody tough on those impacted and I feel sorry for them), but ultimately all it does is reduce their OPEX.

So let's catch-up in 12 months on this thread and you can tell me how wrong I am .

Yes feel free to retort with 'oh he is just a Tesla fanboi', but I have skin in the game and if I suspect the company is going in the wrong direction I'm out.

Well this has only just happened if you believe what's reported so what's happened to this point or had been planned to happen in the future currently is unaffected. What will happen going forwards is important.

As much as they say the Supercharger network was opened up, it's only partially opened up and it's still a very good reason to buy a Tesla because those chargers are some of the most reliable, if not most reliable ones you can use. Always work, always fast. It's a selling point still for the cars and as long as they can also make money from them, why would you give up on it.

 

[WllXM]

Guess I should stop bothering with Tesla | Supercharger Voting for now...

Like @tomorrowman said. Wait and see. Elon sacked 90% of Twitter and while it was extreme and encountered a few minor quirks, it's still running fine (on a technical standpoint).

If the SC network goes from state of the art to utter trash in a year from now, without any new locations and availability rates in freefall, then we'll know it was a terrible call and react accordingly with our wallets...

My investor opinion is that Elon knows that the pure EV sales figures dynamic in the next quarters & SC network cannot justify the current valuation. And instead of fighting the industry trend he's embracing it so he's now full blown on AI / FSD.
Everything else is seen as a cost center and will be trimmed down.
He wants to transition Tesla from an EV company that had an FSD edge to a pure AI/FSD/robotaxi (circle you preferred option) vendor, that still sells some EVs on the side.

 

[djtaylor]

Well this has only just happened if you believe what's reported so what's happened to this point or had been planned to happen in the future currently is unaffected. What will happen going forwards is important.

As much as they say the Supercharger network was opened up, it's only partially opened up and it's still a very good reason to buy a Tesla because those chargers are some of the most reliable, if not most reliable ones you can use. Always work, always fast. It's a selling point still for the cars and as long as they can also make money from them, why would you give up on it.

The other ideal requirement is "always available", i.e. not 50% of the stalls blocked by cars on the wrong side, queues because cheap etc.
Too early to say how this will work out but if the experience is degraded to the same as every other EV then the good reasons to buy a Tesla kinda diminish when it comes to practicality.

 

[WllXM]

The other ideal requirement is "always available", i.e. not 50% of the stalls blocked by cars on the wrong side, queues because cheap etc.
Too early to say how this will work out but if the experience is degraded to the same as every other EV then the good reasons to buy a Tesla kinda diminish when it comes to practicality.

I hope that with time, as a data driven company, they could restrict some of their very popular 'open to all' locations to a few stalls, allowing Teslas to maintain priority when the builtin satnav anticipates a large number of owners driving to that specific location.
Depends of course if they prefer alienating their customer base over the extra $$ that third party vehicles charges bring...

 

[djtaylor]

I hope that with time, as a data driven company, they could restrict some of their very popular 'open to all' locations to a few stalls, allowing Teslas to maintain priority when the builtin satnav anticipates a large number of owners driving to that specific location.
Depends of course if they prefer alienating their customer base over the extra $$ that third party vehicles charges bring...

It does indeed but then Elon is mission driven and may not care a hoot as long as someone else isn't driving ICE. It's certainly going to be interesting to see whether the "benefit" is eroded to a point of no point buying a Tesla or not.

 

[Cardo]

Can you prove the opposite. As a Tesla investor I have spent the last few years filtering through so much garbage and FUD it gets quiet tiring (Reuters, Electrek being prime examples). Lots of news outlets taking a fact (if we are lucky) and drawing their own generally gloom and doom conclusions. It's been surprising learning that opinion is now considered news.

Interestingly despite it all Tesla keeps growing. Last I looked where at are about 60,000 superchargers worldwide and growing.

So Tesla is doing one of it's every X years pruning exercises (bloody tough on those impacted and I feel sorry for them), but ultimately all it does is reduce their OPEX.

So let's catch-up in 12 months on this thread and you can tell me how wrong I am .

Yes feel free to retort with 'oh he is just a Tesla fanboi', but I have skin in the game and if I suspect the company is going in the wrong direction I'm out.

I am not trying to prove anything. I have referenced an article. I know Fred can be quite negative about Tesla, however this article is from a different contributor and he makes reference to an internal email at Tesla mentioning the layoffs. I struggle to see how Tesla can maintain a similar rollout pace having sacked the entire SuC team. However, time will tell.

I haven’t said you are wrong, I simply asked you to provide basis to your statement. The way you come across, you could easily be part of the FUD camp making bold statements then getting defensive when asked for evidence.

As for having skin in the game, you’re not the only one. No need to flex your muscles or strut around with your feathers on display.

 

[Lord Farquad]

It’s certainly a large risk area for Tesla to sack the entire team that provides a USP that has drawn in so many customers. Anytime I road trip it reminds me that this is a Key USP.
The ongoing maintenance of the network appears vital to Tesla’s future, indeed its expansion would appear just as important.
If Elon is all in on FSD/AI/Robotaxi surely he needs the Supercharger network to expand? V5 chargers that self connect to AI driven cars MUST be a goal?

 

[Cardo]

It’s certainly a large risk area for Tesla to sack the entire team that provides a USP that has drawn in so many customers. Anytime I road trip it reminds me that this is a Key USP.
The ongoing maintenance of the network appears vital to Tesla’s future, indeed its expansion would appear just as important.
If Elon is all in on FSD/AI/Robotaxi surely he needs the Supercharger network to expand? V5 chargers that self connect to AI driven cars MUST be a goal?

This is all very much speculation, but I wonder whether the surprisingly positive reception to the latest earnings call where they focussed on everything but private car sales has bolstered Elon to go full steam ahead on AI/robotaxi/Optimus/etc. It’s certainly a bold move, if that’s the case. But again, I do struggle to understand his actions, at times.

 

[WllXM]

If Elon is all in on FSD/AI/Robotaxi surely he needs the Supercharger network to expand? V5 chargers that self connect to AI driven cars MUST be a goal?

I think this is going more the way of wireless charging (with the associated lower energy conversion factors / losses) than with the 'snake bot'

 

[Lord Farquad]

I think this is going more the way of wireless charging (with the associated lower energy conversion factors / losses) than with the 'snake bot'

Even wireless technology could do with Tesla seamless integration. Knowing which stalls are in use and which cars are headed to the site etc

Having ownership to me seems like a no brainer.

 

[tomorrowman]

I am not trying to prove anything. I have referenced an article. I know Fred can be quite negative about Tesla, however this article is from a different contributor and he makes reference to an internal email at Tesla mentioning the layoffs. I struggle to see how Tesla can maintain a similar rollout pace having sacked the entire SuC team. However, time will tell.

I haven’t said you are wrong, I simply asked you to provide basis to your statement. The way you come across, you could easily be part of the FUD camp making bold statements then getting defensive when asked for evidence.

As for having skin in the game, you’re not the only one. No need to flex your muscles or strut around with your feathers on display.