Elon fires the head of SuperChargers and much (all?) of the SuperCharger team - how will this affect new SCs?

[wayner]

I wonder how this will affect the SC build out in Canada. But I can't imagine it will be good. It appears that SCs already in the pipeline will be built out, but it isn't clear if there is anyone left to build new SC sites. I also wonder if it will affect the reliability of existing sites.

Elon seemed to want to make a point that you have to be hardcore about headcount reductions.

But it seems strange to do this when you have just won the SuperCharger battle and you now can become not only the leading car maker, but the leading operator of the "gas stations" of the future.

Now, more layoffs have been finalized through an email from CEO Elon Musk to executives, first reported by The Information, stating that 6-year veteran Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s Senior Director of EV charging, would be leaving the company on Tuesday, along with nearly all of her 500-person charging team (“a few” employees will be reassigned to other teams, according to The Information).

The email states that Tesla will continue to build out some new Superchargers, and will finish those under construction. But relieving the team of its duty may signal a reduction in buildout of the system – at a time when, if anything, faster charging station deployment is needed.

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

Tesla Fires Supercharger Team—Musk Says Network Will Grow At ‘Slower Pace’

Elon Musk internally announced that about 500 people, or the entire team that works on superchargers for Tesla, were being let go this week, according to The Financial Times.

www.forbes.com

 

[wayner]

It looks like even previously announced sites are not safe:

We now learn that there are already direct impacts on planned future Supercharger stations.

Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla backed out of four leases for upcoming Supercharger locations in New York: one in Maspeth, South Bronx, two in Queens, and one in Gateway Center, Brooklyn.

These were new stations recently announced to address concerns with overcrowded Supercharger stations in New York.

Tesla is already pulling back Supercharger plans after firing team

 

[bolero]

They're more likely to sell the V4 chargers to a 3rd party provider just like BP and EVpoint in UK.

 

[CanadaGoose]

Does this extend to supercharger production line at Tesla Buffalo?

 

[wayner]

Does this extend to supercharger production line at Tesla Buffalo?

They announced two weeks ago that they are laying off 14% of the staff in Buffalo. But it isn't clear if that staff works on charging. https://www.reuters.com/business/au...buffalo-workers-warn-notice-shows-2024-04-17/

 

[MattM24]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785406795814510785

 

[MattM24]

Slower pace probably isn’t good for Canada.

 

[wayner]

Slower pace probably isn’t good for Canada.

Yes, and if that other story is right about cancelling the four SCs in NYC that isn't good either.

 

[skepticaleye]

Speaking of projects currently underway, any news at all about the Supercharger station in Brockville?

 

[wayner]

Speaking of projects currently underway, any news at all about the Supercharger station in Brockville?

The last photo was posted about two weeks ago but that shows little progress from the original photo from Jan 31.

 

[ThomasD]

It really sucks for people who relocated for Tesla to take these jobs. They moved over the past few years mostly likely overpaying for their Homes to relocate and now these people have no jobs.

 

[sublimejackman]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785406795814510785

Is there an uptime issue? I've been to like 200 SCs all across the US and the one thing I can say is that uptime is the least of my issues. I've only seen an entire bank of SCs down once and once every 6 months or so one stall may be down.

WAY more concerned with lines and crowding. If I'm within 10mi of a city, during day time hours, there is a line at least 50% of the time.

Also, not sure if this is on the now fired SC team or on Elon's word but it is inexcusable that the CT came out before 800v chargers. Like you had FOUR years...

Same goes for the V3/V4 chargers not having longer cables and being positioned with a passthru. I get that the urban chargers have space constraints but the sheetz, mall or wal mart parking lot can almost certainly support chargers taking double the spaces. Like they negotiated for NACS and opening the chargers up to to other OEMs. Instead when another OEM is charging, it hogs two chargers. If you have a trailer, you need to drop it. Both still requiring two spaces!

 

[skepticaleye]

The last photo was posted about two weeks ago but that shows little progress from the original photo from Jan 31.

thanks for the update.

 

[wayner]

Is there an uptime issue? I've been to like 200 SCs all across the US and the one thing I can say is that uptime is the least of my issues. I've only seen an entire bank of SCs down once and once every 6 months or so one stall may be down.

There hasn't been an uptime issue, but that is one of the main differentiating features of Tesla SCs vs other high speed chargers - they are very often down. The worry is that now that there is no one overseeing SCs that uptime will become an issue in the near future.

 

[Tronguy]

Scanning around TMC, we have two reports:

• On a SC being constructed, there's no work happening. And a TMC-er checked the names of the project manager and the construction manager for the install on Linkedin.. and they were amongst the crowd fired.
• Another TMC-er reported that they needed to get their hotel chain's location L2 chargers commissioned and was unable to contact anybody at Tesla. But a reply to that from another TMC-er said that they were able to get live person help to get their TWC up and running.

Looks like: Anybody whose title included "Supervisor" is gone; anybody one level down is still there. For the moment.

Funny thing, though: Supercharger stalls over a large population fail all the time. Inevitable with a large pile of hardware. My understanding is that a dead one calls the mothership to complain. But that then typically involves a repair tech or something being sent to fix it. And the person doing the "sending" would likely have the word, "Supervisor" in their title.

Finally: supercharge.info has a list of Superchargers being installed, going up, going down, starting install, planning stages, and so on. There's activity over the past two days in the EU and China.. China definitely still running, but the EU isn't much there, and there's absolutely nothing in the Americas.

I have this nasty feeling that SuC's are about to get a LOT less reliable.

 

[CanadaGoose]

I don’t think anyone is working on the supercharger team in Canada.

 

[wayner]

I don’t think anyone is working on the supercharger team in Canada.

By that do you mean that they have all been fired, or that there never was a Supercharger team in Canada? If it was the latter and the team was in the US, which I suspect, then it is likely that they are gone.

 

[bolero]

Tesla doesn't need to built a lot of SC in the EU since their third party EV chargers are reliable. Also BP and EVpoint are using Tesla V4 chargers over there.

 

[sublimejackman]

There hasn't been an uptime issue, but that is one of the main differentiating features of Tesla SCs vs other high speed chargers - they are very often down. The worry is that now that there is no one overseeing SCs that uptime will become an issue in the near future.

Agreed. Rarely experience any uptime issues. This seems to be Elon flexing when the head of SC didn't take decimating their team seriously.

But also, there are key issues with the current state of SCs. No space for trailers, no 800v chargers, short cables, wifi issues, most locations don't have trash cans/window wash, many locations are far away from public restooms, etc. Stuff that seems obvious and should have been worked out with the V4 chargers. I get that with the V2 chargers, they were learning and building as fast as they could but now they need to start acting like a mature company. Which I think is the main problem with Tesla overall in 2024, they still act like a startup and it has gotten old.

 

[RedOctober]

Some unfortunate news at the Tesla Buffalo factory. Now up to 311 jobs lost.

Tesla cuts 26 more jobs at South Buffalo factory - MRC Online

Tesla plans to cut 26 more jobs at its Buffalo plant after the company decided earlier this week to dissolve its supercharger unit that had most of its

www.six-mile-ranch.ca