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?

 

[Rocky_H]

I have an additional two cents on this, one cent per idea.

A lot of people have been saying Tesla now has no competitive advantage with their cars at all, zero, nada, since they opened up the Supercharger network to other brands. I've been looking into this recently, and that's not true. It is diminished a little, but is still some advantage. I went looking around at other brand EVs, mainly checking how their charging route planning is, and it's not very good compared to Tesla's very well integrated system. With Ford and Audi/VW, they can auto choose route charging stops, but it's limited to Electrify America only. There is no option to include anything else. With Hyundai/Kia, it's just not there, which is cumbersome. It just says charging will be needed; go find it.

This axing of the Supercharger team was already bad and badly done, but the compounding factor was that it was done at the worst possible time! Tesla really needed to stay engaged and involved during this transitional time when they were onboarding the other car makers into the implementation of NACS ports and integration into plug and charge into Tesla's Supercharger network. Losing all of their support staff that were working with those companies has left them feeling confused, frustrated, distrustful, and regretful. This would have been much less damaging to happen in the latter half of 2025, when they had gotten through a lot of that work.

 

[gearchruncher]

More detailed reporting on the layoffs this week in service:

More Tesla employees laid off as bloodbath enters its fourth week

The layoffs are said to hit software, services, and engineering.

www.theverge.com

Hard to believe they're going to reduce service for cars but that supercharger maintenance will be untouched.

 

[EatsShoots]

Don’t recall that. But I do recall a car company (Volvo?) a few decades ago floating the idea of what it would take to make a car last “forever”. Two main problems presented themselves…

1) The car would cost several times what a conventional car would cost, due largely to the cost involved in “forever” materials and components, and,

2) How many people would actually want to drive the same car for 30 years? Or would anyone be happy driving a car with 1950’s technology into the 1980’s?

Of course, the fact that there’s a whole category of classic cars running around that shows that cars can already last “forever” given proper care and attention.

Edited to add: This reminded me of an anecdote about Henry Ford and how well his cars should be built, often used as an anecdote when discussing parsimony in evolution. For your consideration: The legend of Henry Ford's kingpins in evolutionary biology

Good insight and let me segue into what I think is actually wrong with Toyota today, since nobody asked.

Did you know you can build a new Tacoma on Toyota's website that costs $74k? Yes, $74k. For a Tacoma. Now, here is a truck that will "last forever"--or a good analog thereof. But, who can afford a $74k truck? Not the kind of person to keep a vehicle for 10-15 years, so who is this for?

 

[zroger73]

 

[texas_star_TM3]

More detailed reporting on the layoffs this week in service:

More Tesla employees laid off as bloodbath enters its fourth week

The layoffs are said to hit software, services, and engineering.

www.theverge.com

Hard to believe they're going to reduce service for cars but that supercharger maintenance will be untouched.

Superchargers and "Service" Centers are probably the two functions Tesla should be laying off LAST.
Again - if nothing goes wrong and mobile service can fix it ... owning a Tesla is fine. Once the Service Center gets involved and the repair is a bit more complex.... you will hate it.

 

[gearchruncher]

Did you know you can build a new Tacoma on Toyota's website that costs $74k? Yes, $74k. For a Tacoma.

So? The base Tacoma starts at $31,500, which is well under the price of an average car transaction in the USA.

The $74K Tacoma is sold and equipped like a full race truck. It's not for people looking for a forever transport car. It's a very specific niche vehicle for people that can afford it.

This is like saying did you know you can option a Toyota Corolla to $50K!? Yeah, that's a full race car basically. Or you can option a F-150 to almost $130K if you want by buying the Raptor trim with the $30K engine and all the other goodies. Companies have sold "hot" versions of their vehicles forever at highly profitable margins. Tesla does it too, and used to do it more successfully with the margins on cars like the Plaid editions before they flattened pricing.

 

[zroger73]

Good luck actually being able to find a $33K (MSRP+destination) Tacoma.

You'll find plenty of them in the $40-50K range.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Yeah I just watched this video. It was painful to watch - he skips over so many overtly obvious topics that it's become blatantly obvious that Sandy has become a shill for Tesla. That's the only point I took away from this video. The early falsehoods posted by the bulls that the SC service team wasn't impacted are now known to be untrue - the service team was impacted significantly in the layoffs - given many of those service people have actually posted indicating they were also impacted by the same round of layoffs. So much for that theory. Does anyone really believe that the SC network enjoys the uptime it does only because of superior design? It's mostly because that team spent a lot of time and effort keeping the existing system up and running. In the video Sandy falsely states that Tesla can still manufacture the SCs and ship them for installation, except for the minor fact that the SCs are almost entirely manufactured in the Buffalo, NY plant and most of those folks were apparently let go as well. So exactly how is that going to work? This guy has lost his marbles unfortunately.

 

[RL Czmowski]

I am one-year Tesla owner, not an investor, don't know Musk personally, and very rarely rely on public chargers.

From the outside, it's funny seeing such strong overreactions to Tesla's decisions.

I am surprised more people don't realize that Musk is more robot than human when it comes to emotions - he calculates and makes moves that most people aren't capable of understanding at the moment, but will make sense later.

I just want my auto wipers to stop wiping a dry windshield.

Otherwise, I enjoy my Tesla very much. The price or capability of full self-driving or what Musk says and does don't change that.

I agree, i would like to disconnect the auto feature of my Y's wipers!!!!!

 

[Skotty]

What are you driving now and how does it compare?

We currently have a 2023 F-150 Lightning and a 2014 Model S P85. The Lightning replaced a Model 3. We were looking to get a truck, as we sometimes do truck things like haul mulch and gravel and do DIY projects like building a deck and patio. We spent a few years borrowing a truck while we only had an S and a 3. I like the F-150. It feels less risky than something like a Cybertruck, and I like the big frunk and appreciate certain old school things like having a spare tire under the bed. I've kind of been keeping the S just to see how long it will last. The center screen on the S has to be rebooted a lot. If we replace the S at some point, it will probably be to replace it with an efficient long range trip car, but I don't know what that would be. I don't like some of the recent design trends of Tesla (I prefer stalks, round steering wheels, vertical displays, instrument cluster displays, homelink that you don't have to have manually installed after purchase, to name a few things). Tesla isn't out of the running for a future replacement, but it's not the slam dunk it used to be.

 

[Skotty]

Part of the problem for Tesla and Elon on this is that Elon has lost a lot of credibility with a lot of people, including me. A few years back before he become an emotional and vengeful basketcase, I would have assumed he was making hard but important business decisions. I don't make such assumptions anymore. That capital has long been spent.

 

[ThomasD]

I didn't know CBS was a Consertive News Outlet

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/working-for-you/sdge-proposes-billing-customers-based-on-income/509-a2e48373-bfe7-4e4b-9767-30cdb75640

 

[texas_star_TM3]

So? The base Tacoma starts at $31,500, which is well under the price of an average car transaction in the USA.

The $74K Tacoma is sold and equipped like a full race truck. It's not for people looking for a forever transport car. It's a very specific niche vehicle for people that can afford it.

This is like saying did you know you can option a Toyota Corolla to $50K!? Yeah, that's a full race car basically. Or you can option a F-150 to almost $130K if you want by buying the Raptor trim with the $30K engine and all the other goodies. Companies have sold "hot" versions of their vehicles forever at highly profitable margins. Tesla does it too, and used to do it more successfully with the margins on cars like the Plaid editions before they flattened pricing.

shhhhhht. that's a thing here.... any vehicle *not* made by Tesla: let's quote the highest config/trim level and also claim there's another +$10k in dealership markups

any vehicle which is a Tesla: let's quote the lowest price possible *after* tax/ fuel savings....

 

[Midpack]

Sandy is a good LEAN engineer who's ship finally came in. Unfortunately that's gone to his head and he's decided he's an expert on business now too - he's not. He doesn't even know enough to realize this video is an embarrassment, out over his skis...

He's as much of an Elon fanboy as anyone. [I'm still giving Elon the benefit of the doubt on balance, but interesting times...]

 

[CyberShy]

I didn't know CBS was a Consertive News Outlet

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/working-for-you/sdge-proposes-billing-customers-based-on-income/509-a2e48373-bfe7-4e4b-9767-30cdb75640

Link dead.

 

[gearchruncher]

I didn't know CBS was a Consertive News Outlet

Did you link to a local CBS affiliate's local news as if they represented CBS in general? Do you understand media that badly?

The fact that you are trying to find another source besides Fox News tells me where you first got this information. The fact that the site you chose specifically says exactly what I mentioned and appears completely unbiased just doubles down on you only going after the rage bait and think any reporting on this must be inline with your biased view. Remember, you said:

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?

While the article you posted has gems like:

Currently, you not only pay for how much electricity your household uses, but other things such as how that electricity is delivered.

SDG&E's plan is to offer residential customers a fixed delivery rate every billing cycle, no matter how much electricity is used.

“By having a fixed price for the delivery portion, we can actually reduce the remaining electricity rate by about 42% so that can create additional bill savings,” said Scott Crider, SDG&E's Vice President of External Affairs and Operations Support.

Everyone's average kilowatt hour rate drops from 47 cents to 27 cents.

As for electricity, Crider says these changes are the result of California's climate goals, saying with more and more people transitioning to cleaner energy, such as electric vehicles, we have to find a way to make it more affordable.

It appears the CBS8 article is quite factual and correct, and nobody reading it in detail would think CA is moving to an income only bill. Did you read it before posting?

Here's a non-broken link also without the last two characters of the URL missing:

SDG&E proposes billing electricity customers based on income

The proposal is part of a new state law requiring utility companies to come up with fixed-rate plans to make billing more equitable.

www.cbs8.com

 

[Videomatic3]

Don’t recall that.

I dont remember where I heard that from either, I just remember it. It's a lot easier to replace an electrical motor than it is to replace an entire gas engine, and cheaper. There's in theory less to go wrong with the car, though my model s has proved otherwise.

 

[terranx]

I dont remember where I heard that from either, I just remember it. It's a lot easier to replace an electrical motor than it is to replace an entire gas engine, and cheaper. There's in theory less to go wrong with the car, though my model s has proved otherwise.

I don’t know if removing a gas engine is really that much more work. In both cases you’ll basically be disconnecting electrical and cooling connections and dropping the subframe as a unit.

 

[pirunningman]

I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been said.

There are several legit reasons to slow SC rollout, halt new construction, and focus on existing locations. First, if V4 is nearly ready, Tesla should not waste money installing V3 chargers that will soon be obsolete. Remember, as far as I know there are no V4 chargers in the ground today, only V4 dispensers. Second, there are clearly diminishing returns when adding nodes to a network. The most recently added stations likely have low usage and very long return on investment. Third, it might be more customer friendly to have fewer locations with many chargers so you don't have to figure out which location has chargers available. Finally, and this is most import, Tesla is likely going to need to completely rebuild the SC network to fully support Cybertruck and other future vehicles that are likely to use 800V+ architecture. It will be extremely expensive. The SC network is great, but Tesla's brand new flagship product charges better at Electrify America right now. It's possible V4 chargers are far behind schedule or had to be scrapped as they won't serve the future fleet well enough.

In that case, it may also be legit to cut engineers and start fresh. Given these reasons to stop building, Tesla certainly couldn't justify keeping a team to manage construction projects. But that still doesn't explain firing the whole team or doing it so abruptly that they don't even know the contractors that need to be paid. They easily could have softened the impact of this and could have explained the plan better.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been said.

There are several legit reasons to slow SC rollout, halt new construction, and focus on existing locations. First, if V4 is nearly ready, Tesla should not waste money installing V3 chargers that will soon be obsolete. Remember, as far as I know there are no V4 chargers in the ground today, only V4 dispensers. Second, there are clearly diminishing returns when adding nodes to a network. The most recently added stations likely have low usage and very long return on investment. Third, it might be more customer friendly to have fewer locations with many chargers so you don't have to figure out which location has chargers available. Finally, and this is most import, Tesla is likely going to need to completely rebuild the SC network to fully support Cybertruck and other future vehicles that are likely to use 800V+ architecture. It will be extremely expensive. The SC network is great, but Tesla's brand new flagship product charges better at Electrify America right now. It's possible V4 chargers are far behind schedule or had to be scrapped as they won't serve the future fleet well enough.

In that case, it may also be legit to cut engineers and start fresh. Given these reasons to stop building, Tesla certainly couldn't justify keeping a team to manage construction projects. But that still doesn't explain firing the whole team or doing it so abruptly that they don't even know the contractors that need to be paid. They easily could have softened the impact of this and could have explained the plan better.

and none of the above would even remotely justify canning the ENTIRE team with an email at midnight. also Elon said none of the above....

a lot of odd theories just to not entertain the idea that Elon acts irrational at times and Supercharging takes the backseat for AI and robotaxis...