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?

 

[ken_neth]

How many reports from newly laid of employees of any company predicting that the sky will surely fall now that they no longer support it have there been during the industrial age?

Relax and wait. Don't pay attention to talking heads - they very likely know less than you do but can spout new nonsense quicker than most.

 

[gearchruncher]

Relax and wait. Don't pay attention to talking heads - they very likely know less than you do but can spout new nonsense quicker than most.

Why do people keep repeating this "don't listen to the news" narrative?
Nobody here is repeating what a talking head is saying. The "news" about the SC team being laid off is a fact. It's an email from Elon, never disputed.

Beyond that it's just actual owners being very concerned about what this means about the charging experience. We don't need to be told to worry about it.

 

[terranx]

Why do people keep repeating this "don't listen to the news" narrative?

Because obviously anyone who says anything negative against tesla are just unfairly against Elon and trying to make a quick buck by shorting Tesla.

 

[gglockner]

Beyond that it's just actual owners being very concerned about what this means about the charging experience. We don't need to be told to worry about it.

Exactly. Tesla owners purchased expensive cars based partly on the promise of available high-speed chargers. Tesla took measures this week that jeopardize that for the future. I'm not a lawyer but I suspect this could be basis for a lawsuit.

 

[alexgr]

The supercharger system just doesn't need people any more. How hard is that?
Sheesh.

New video by Al Gru

 

[fhteagle]

I sincerely hope any employee that was mass laid off from Tesla, then subsequently recruited back sets their minimum compensation at $55B in stock options.

 

[gglockner]

New video by Al Gru

Bozhe moi!

 

[Kevy Baby]

Is it just me or did Supercharger RATES just skyrocket? I saw a post on FB and checked some of my usual haunts and there was a definite (significant) increase.

 

[fhteagle]

The three nearest to me are up ~10% since the last time I looked. Still cheaper than gas in this area at least.........

 

[Ben W]

I sincerely hope any employee that was mass laid off from Tesla, then subsequently recruited back sets their minimum compensation at $55B in stock options.

If the employee is Rebecca Tinucci, and the position is CEO, I have no problem with that.

 

[gearchruncher]

As a logical robot with a well thought out plan for everything, do you think Elon spent more time considering the consequences of laying off the whole SC team, or this proposal from a few hours ago?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1786054505873781005

I, for one, am looking forward to travelling the world at half price.

 

[djec65fb]

I sold 90% of my TSLA earlier this year and in about to offload the rest. I’ll hold just enough to vote no on Elmo’s pay package as a final middle finger. Elmo is running Tesla into the ground and the supercharger network was one of Teslas few remaining moats.

I’m debating cutting my losses on my Model 3 (-$40K in less than 2 years ) and just going back to a gas performance car like an Audi RS3. If (when) the supercharger network starts degrading my vehicle will become far less useful to me if I can no longer roadtrip as easily as I can today.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

As a logical robot with a well thought out plan for everything, do you think Elon spent more time considering the consequences of laying off the whole SC team, or this proposal from a few hours ago?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1786054505873781005

I, for one, am looking forward to travelling the world at half price.

'One way' as in no coming home. Think outside your square.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

I have still not seen a sourced credible explanation of why the Supercharger layoffs were done

How about some more speculation?

Supercharging made no money. News to me but credible.

They aren't worth anything to anyone except municipalities and commercial entities that value the customer draw.

Off load and concentrate on core business, whatever that really is. I thought it was building cars. How wrong of me.

Turns charging from supply lead demand to an actual demand lead product. Had to happen at some stage and this is bigE's answer to that impending call. Very premature in the case of NZ if you ask me.

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

How about some more speculation?

Supercharging made no money. News to me but credible.

They aren't worth anything to anyone except municipalities and commercial entities that value the customer draw.

Off load and concentrate on core business, whatever that really is. I thought it was building cars. How wrong of me.

Turns charging from supply lead demand to an actual demand lead product. Had to happen at some stage and this is bigE's answer to that impending call. Very premature in the case of NZ if you ask me.

Building cars seems to presume that they are vehicles that can operate ordinarily on the roads, which implies supercharging sufficient to ultimately make it be close to ICE vehicles with their gas stations all over the place.

 

[gearchruncher]

'One way' as in no coming home. Think outside your square.

Oh wow, you walked right into that one, given that 80 minutes later he posted this. See what you get for assuming Elon is being logical?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1786073478711353576

He had 80 minutes to contemplate his insane, unconstitutional "idea", and had two possibilities. Delete it after people pointed out it was completely against American rights, or refine it. And he decided to refine it, in a way that makes it clear he's completely incapable of thinking even 1 step ahead to what kinds of impacts a policy would have. But I'm sure he has a great plan for superchargers.

 

[patrick42h]

How about some more speculation?

Supercharging made no money. News to me but credible.

They aren't worth anything to anyone except municipalities and commercial entities that value the customer draw.

Off load and concentrate on core business, whatever that really is. I thought it was building cars. How wrong of me.

Turns charging from supply lead demand to an actual demand lead product. Had to happen at some stage and this is bigE's answer to that impending call. Very premature in the case of NZ if you ask me.

You are right that Tesla's core business is in building and selling cars. However, those cars do not exist in a vacuum. The infrastructure to support BEVs is still in its very early days and the existence of a ubiquitous, reliable charging network to support those cars is a key selling point.

 

[Brolan]

The reason the Supercharger network exists in the first place is that Tesla correctly assumed that a large reliable charging infrastructure is necessary to sell electric cars. That hasn’t changed and they need more stations with the larger amounts of electric cars being built each successive year.

Suspending new stations for a year or more is going to cause capacity issues. Long lines at Superchargers, more negative electric car stories in the press, more ridicule from ICE vehicle owners confirming their bias against EVs.

All this makes it harder for all electric vehicle manufacturers to sell their cars. It may cause the market to shrink instead of growing. Maybe even a death spiral for EVs.

 

[bmah]

Moderator note: Moved some posts that were clearly off-topic and political to the political quarantine.

This thread is ranging pretty far and wide, and emotions are understandably running high right now. Please try to keep your posts at least somewhat related to the Supercharger network.

Bruce.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

Tesla owners purchased expensive cars based partly on the promise of available high-speed chargers

Count me in there. No way I would have plunked for the Tesla without the SC here in town to get me out of an available range hole quickly.

That's the problem, most cars don't travel cross country too often and most people charge at home almost exclusively aside from those big trips. We want them available much more than we want to actually use them.

A prediction.

As good as the tech is it must be capable of improvement to the point it doesn't need a profit sapping amount of maintenance. Then we get price competition in charging as the power coming out of them is already expensive. Those people in the charging dept have plenty of work lined up once the dust settles but it will be paid for out of subsidies, and charge fees going up not down.