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?

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

Pretty sure there is a fair bit of govt money in the SC already.

 

[michael805]

Have noticed some big price increases over past couple weeks. San Ardo, CA went from 37 cents per kWh to 46 cents per kWh. With new car demand lagging, supercharger network seems to be the lever Tesla is pulling to increase revenue at least in the short term.

 

[gearchruncher]

he Superchargers weren't supposed to be profit centers

And service centers weren't supposed to be profit centers and they were supposed to take same day appointments and they were supposed to pay you if they had to cancel an appointment.

And FSD was supposed to drive across country in 2017.

And the Roadster was supposed to ship in 2020.

And....

It's fine that Tesla had pivoted charging to be a for-profit business. They should. It is not logical to go "whoops, we didn't mean to make money on this so let's fire everyone."

 

[Videomatic3]

Have noticed some big price increases over past couple weeks. San Ardo, CA went from 37 cents per kWh to 46 cents per kWh. With new car demand lagging, supercharger network seems to be the lever Tesla is pulling to increase revenue at least in the short term.

Tesla isn't responsible for the price increases. Pge has done 2 rate hikes this year already, and what sucks to think about is we are on winter rates still. When things go over to summer rates it will get more expensive, making an electric car not as cost savings as the company would like you to believe.

 

[michael805]

Tesla isn't responsible for the price increases. Pge has done 2 rate hikes this year already, and what sucks to think about is we are on winter rates still. When things go over to summer rates it will get more expensive, making an electric car not as cost savings as the company would like you to believe.

A 24% increase since I last charged there 2 1/2 weeks ago feels like it’s more than just PG&E rates in play here.. I’m seeing many 8-9 cent price increases at chargers I’ve frequented. I do agree things will get worse

 

[texas_star_TM3]

Have noticed some big price increases over past couple weeks. San Ardo, CA went from 37 cents per kWh to 46 cents per kWh. With new car demand lagging, supercharger network seems to be the lever Tesla is pulling to increase revenue at least in the short term.

46 cents? Wow.

 

[gglockner]

Have noticed some big price increases over past couple weeks. San Ardo, CA went from 37 cents per kWh to 46 cents per kWh. With new car demand lagging, supercharger network seems to be the lever Tesla is pulling to increase revenue at least in the short term.

What are residential electric rates in that area?

 

[LostVector]

My

What are residential electric rates in that area?

Not a direct response but PG&E peak rates are going to be 0.67 per kWh for residential for four summer months. They're completely insane. Even off-peak right now I think we're paying 0.45 at least.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

Payback on solar very short at those rates.

 

[Videomatic3]

Payback on solar very short at those rates.

pge did what they could to screw us on that too.
my previous rates were off peak from 11pm to 7am, partial peak from 7-2 / 9-11 and peak from 2-9

they changed it to off peak midnight to 3pm partial peak from 3-4 / 9-midnight and peak from 4-9

so now when im not home not using electricity and the solar is over producing during the day i cant make as many credits as i used to be able to, and when it reaches peak hours the sun is at its last few hours of light.
so as you'd like to believe this, thats not the case anymore, and with nem 3.0 we get 25% of our credits when we used to get 100%, basically trying to force everyone to buy battery packs for the peak hours.

off/partial/peak
winter pricing is .25 / .41 / .43
summer pricing is .25 / .45 / .56
this is residential pricing of course. who knows what businesses pay when they get wholesale price

also tesla tries to use higher pricing at certain chargers to try to reduce the demand at certain charging stations that get crowded. i remember seeing the 72kw urban chargers in san ramon were .27 all day for a short few months, meanwhile theres a station in dublin charging .61 and its crowded a lot.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

We complain about the price of power here when it's less than yours and in NZD to boot. You get very cheap petrol compared to us so we whinge about that too.

 

[cwerdna]

pge did what they could to screw us on that too.
my previous rates were off peak from 11pm to 7am, partial peak from 7-2 / 9-11 and peak from 2-9

they changed it to off peak midnight to 3pm partial peak from 3-4 / 9-midnight and peak from 4-9

so now when im not home not using electricity and the solar is over producing during the day i cant make as many credits as i used to be able to, and when it reaches peak hours the sun is at its last few hours of light.
so as you'd like to believe this, thats not the case anymore, and with nem 3.0 we get 25% of our credits when we used to get 100%, basically trying to force everyone to buy battery packs for the peak hours.

off/partial/peak
winter pricing is .25 / .41 / .43
summer pricing is .25 / .45 / .56
this is residential pricing of course. who knows what businesses pay when they get wholesale price

Don't know what plan you're on. EV2-A for EV drivers w/o separate meter for their EVSE is at https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_EV2 (Sch).pdf. See page 2. Off-peak is 35.2 cents per kWh. Rest of day depending on when ranges from 52 to 66.4 cents per kWh. That plan has no tiers nor baseline amounts.

I'm on E-TOU-C as I don't charge my EV at home since I have free L2 juice at work and can charge cheaper elsewhere too (e.g. 19 cents per kWh DC FC, some free but busy public L2, etc.) For that see page 2 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_E-TOU-C.pdf. Prices range from 49.5 to 62.6 cents per kWh, but on your baseline kWh (about 290ish kWh per 30 day billing period), you get 10.7 cent per kWh credit. Once you pass baseline, you receive no credit, which is how they implement tiers. So, the absolute lowest possible is ~38.8 cents per kWh off-peak in "winter" until you pass baseline.

 

[Milan Djabirov]

Was thinking exactly the same this morning! Him pushing his subordinate director for a steep layoff/cutback, subordinate director pushing back, and the one who’s shown many times to be fairly vindictive in personal interaction in business, showing her who’s the boss! But even this would be too impulsive to be true, or maybe not? I bet there will be new openings in that org very soon. Musk is a stable genius - he’s either right, or will correct his mistake upon realizing he’s not

Seems my thinking was likely along the lines of what happened:

Tesla’s Supercharger layoffs couldn’t have come at a worse time

Tesla “ultra-hardcore” cuts stall EV charging projects.

www.theverge.com

Quote:
“According to a former employee who spoke to The Washington Post, Tinucci met with Musk privately before the layoffs to express her opposition to the magnitude of the layoffs. Now with Tinucci out, along with most of the Supercharger team, Tesla’s big lead is at risk.”

 

[FastEddieB]

I mentioned before the obvious effect these firings must have on the morale of remaining employees.

Add to that the effect on potential employees - especially upper level management types. I suspect they would have to very seriously reconsider before going to work for someone so mercurial and impulsive in their firing decisions. That could very possibly lead to the best talent available choosing to end up elsewhere.

I virtually always buy and sell stocks at the market. Such decisions should not be made by price at any given moment, but rather on one’s overall view of a company’s prospects. Yet I’m toying with the idea of putting in a stop-loss order in at around 122, which is the average basis of my shares. At 180 there’s no rush to do so, and I’m still hoping for the best, but I’ve never been so disillusioned about Tesla’s future.

 

[mborkow]

I mentioned before the obvious effect these firings must have on the morale of remaining employees.

Add to that the effect on potential employees - especially upper level management types. I suspect they would have to very seriously reconsider before going to work for someone so mercurial and impulsive in their firing decisions. That could very possibly lead to the best talent available choosing to end up elsewhere.

I think a lot of people felt that way already and this episode serves to reinforce that. The last time a Tesla recruiter asked me if I was interested in a job opening my response to her was, “no way in hell would I work for Elon.”

 

[Videomatic3]

it varies by region, my power is cheaper in livermore vs what my buddies plan in antioch is. His rates are 46 cents off peak and 47 cents peak last time I checked. We have found out there's a maximum amount of money you can get charged with his plan, and I think it was $4500 or something and the rest is subsidized by something, because his bill for last year was supposed to be around $7000.
He puts about 80,000 miles a year on his car.

 

[Ampster]

I am planning a road trip in June from California to South Carolina. Hopefully the network will not suffer and be stable by mid June. It would be a slow trip with reduced Supercharger access.
It might be worth investing in a CCS to NACS adapter?

 

[ThomasD]

Isn't it going to get worse in CA when they implement the rates for Electricity based on income and not how much you use?

 

[theothertom]

I am planning a road trip in June from California to South Carolina. Hopefully the network will not suffer and be stable by mid June. It would be a slow trip with reduced Supercharger access.
It might be worth investing in a CCS to NACS adapter?

Check to see how far apart the superchargers are on your intended route. As long as you're on interstates, I'm guessing they would be 50-75 miles apart. If that's the case, I would say you don't need the adapter. Leave yourself enough % to get to another charger if your target charger can't be used.
Use this map to estimate how far apart the chargers are. You can play around with the "circle distance"

supercharge.info

Zoomable Tesla supercharger map with adjustable range indicator.

supercharge.info

 

[Larry W]

People are concerned because Elon Musk fired the entire supercharger team and will cut back expanding the SC network. This happened shortly after visiting China and getting a deal for FSD. The timing may not be coincidental. While there, he could have seen how successful Nio's battery swapping network was. He may be planning to do the same with Tesla. When Tesla began that idea was considered but dropped. Nio has proved it is successful.