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

[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.

Aaaannndd.. might have to take some of that back. On May 2nd, a team of Tesla types on the commissioning team apparently got a 12-stall Supercharger in Salem, NH up and running. Result was published on supercharge.info and celebrated on the appropriate TMC thread.

Signs of life.

 

[wornout]

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!

I drive up and down California monthly. Superchargers are always empty, except on Sunday afternoons.

 

[TomServo]

We depart on May 9th on a 2K trip to visit our grand kids in Maryland. We’ve made this trip 10 times, stopping at the same 5 SCer’s. I’m 72 and a disabled vet, my wife is 71. While the car requires a minimum of 5 charging stops we use other stations for Bio breaks, so under any circumstances we NEVER encountered RANGE ANXIETY. FTR I recall only encountering ONE INOP Charger, that was at Glen Allen Va (1 of 20 stalls out) and I pulled it.

But like many we are baffled by Elon’s behavior. I hope all the drama is for naught and passes quickly.

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

So how about this? Can we get a commitment on when the long promised and long overdue superchargers (such as in Mountain Home, ID, due originally in 2022 then in 2023 and now?) Seems like that is a relevant post and fair question. I saw in some FB Tesla owner group where some UT dude was saying he had voted for Elon's extra compensation or bonus or whatever because Elon had delivered on his previous promises. Given that previously scheduled SC's are not yet on-line, and to be developed ones having been selected via the polls that went out are in complete limbo, I just don't see it that way. The already built and working network AND the aggressive expansion were integral to my purchase back in 2022

 

[MattM24]

So how about this? Can we get a commitment on when the long promised and long overdue superchargers (such as in Mountain Home, ID, due originally in 2022 then in 2023 and now?) Seems like that is a relevant post and fair question. I saw in some FB Tesla owner group where some UT dude was saying he had voted for Elon's extra compensation or bonus or whatever because Elon had delivered on his previous promises. Given that previously scheduled SC's are not yet on-line, and to be developed ones having been selected via the polls that went out are in complete limbo, I just don't see it that way. The already built and working network AND the aggressive expansion were integral to my purchase back in 2022

Probably not in the Canada forum

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

Probably not in the Canada forum

Ha! yeah, ok. I did not see that was where this thread was when I posted. Sorry about that!

 

[zknobody]

Based on the news I've read this week (all unofficial):

** Any project that has already started (shovels in the ground) will continue with delays
** New projects at permit stage with no construction are on hold
** Delays are expected with the 3rd party SC sharing agreement

This is indeed unfortunate news for the industry and specifically Tesla as it has to deal with a lot of complicated business relationship matters such as lease agreements, delaying in vendor payments etc.

 

[Dear_OP]

Based on the news I've read this week (all unofficial):

** Any project that has already started (shovels in the ground) will continue with delays
** New projects at permit stage with no construction are on hold
** Delays are expected with the 3rd party SC sharing agreement

This is indeed unfortunate news for the industry and specifically Tesla as it has to deal with a lot of complicated business relationship matters such as lease agreements, delaying in vendor payments etc.

Wow that's too bad! Such big news with other mfg adopting NACS. Lots of excitement with non-Tesla EV owners.

 

[MontyFloyd]

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

But who will make the arrangement?
Seems like Tesla needs to start from scratch to even sell SC for others to install.

Of all the "Dumbsizing" examples in dictionary, this may be the best example of all.

 

[MontyFloyd]

Lots of excitement with non-Tesla EV owners.

Big doubt. Tesla stopping its network will not magically make CCS1 great.

 

[Tronguy]

Y'know, you-all on this thread seem to be talking like the SC network is dead and gone. No new chargers, no new stalls, no new installs, etc., etc..

I'll grant you that, during the four-day interval from the Monday when the dismissals were announced to Friday morning, there was nothing new over at supercharge.info. In fact, during that interval installs and changes in the EU also stopped, although things were being installed in China at a great pace.

But since then, stuff has changed. Here's a snapshot:

That's just the last three days. A significant portion of those are in the US. Superchargers going into planning, into construction, into service, and being repaired.

Admittedly supercharge.info isn't Official, as in Tesla, but it sure looks like Superchargers are being planned, constructed, and being installed.

 

[MattM24]

Y'know, you-all on this thread seem to be talking like the SC network is dead and gone. No new chargers, no new stalls, no new installs, etc., etc..

I'll grant you that, during the four-day interval from the Monday when the dismissals were announced to Friday morning, there was nothing new over at supercharge.info. In fact, during that interval installs and changes in the EU also stopped, although things were being installed in China at a great pace.

But since then, stuff has changed. Here's a snapshot:

View attachment 1045482

That's just the last three days. A significant portion of those are in the US. Superchargers going into planning, into construction, into service, and being repaired.

Admittedly supercharge.info isn't Official, as in Tesla, but it sure looks like Superchargers are being planned, constructed, and being installed.

We need more here in Canada.

 

[gt2690b]

Y'know, yall ....

Ftfy

 

[Crutonius]

Big doubt. Tesla stopping its network will not magically make CCS1 great.

Well if they want to improve the ccs1 network I hear there's a world class team that just became available.

 

[dfly777]

Elon’s latest update on the Supercharging network.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788834859110002716

 

[wayner]

Good to hear, but I wonder who is going to do this expansion if there is no one left in the SC group.

 

[Crutonius]

Optimus bots?

 

[X Fan]

I drive up and down California monthly. Superchargers are always empty, except on Sunday afternoons.

I wonder what the break even utilization rate is per supercharger?

 

[gt2690b]

I wonder what the break even utilization rate is per supercharger?

ive thought about this too.. i wonder what the markup on power is.. assuming they can get a $0.25 markup per KWH and a charger costs $40,000 they would need ~9 charges / day for a year to get there money back or about 3200 average charge sessions

$0.25 * ~50KWH = $12.50 they make on each charge session

$40,000 / $12.50 = 3200 sessions

very rough math here

 

[MattM24]

ive thought about this too.. i wonder what the markup on power is.. assuming they can get a $0.25 markup per KWH and a charger costs $40,000 they would need ~9 charges / day for a year to get there money back or about 3200 average charge sessions

$0.25 * ~50KWH = $12.50 they make on each charge session

$40,000 / $12.50 = 3200 sessions

very rough math here

Are you assuming free land and no maintenance?
Either way, doesn’t seem like much.