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?

 

[gearchruncher]

Yet here everyone is jumping to conclusions and freaking out over that which they actually know little, if anything, about. For all you know, it could be a step to actually improve the experience but that wouldn't support the narrative, would it?

If this was the case, why is Elon not tweeting that, but instead tweeting weak statements about "existing projects will be completed?"

The reason I am skeptical that this was a well thought out plan is that you don't lay off a whole team in the middle of the night via email if you had a strong plan at all, much less one in which things get better. Not a single person on that team could help Tesla get better?

If it is a 4D chess plan, it's a shame Elon is such an atrocious communicator, despite owning a literal communications platform and using it constantly to tell us his hot takes on wokeness and immigration.

Do you think that Tesla wouldn't have any inside knowledge of anything coming along that may impact this for users?

Yeah, I do, and I think most of that inside knowledge stopped coming to work yesterday. You can call it "Telsa" as if there are a bunch of smart people there that know everything, but no company works that way. They fired the literal director and whole team of the thing you are claiming Tesla is an expert at, while also claiming this is a good thing for the future of that.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

As someone that owns a Tesla car, but not Tesla shares, they are a car company. They sold me a car. That is why we are here, not as a question of what is best for shareholders (although this looks pretty shortsighted there as well, given that if Tesla stops selling cars because demand craters, they go bankrupt in just a few months, which is the whole reason Tesla is cutting costs right now).

And for now, Tesla is a car company. They can WANT to be a tech company, but they sell one thing today. Cars. They need to pivot to be a "tech" company (whatever that means), and they have yet to succeed at that. When 95% of your revenue comes from selling one thing, that is what you are. Call me when Tesla is making even 25% of revenue from something that isn't tied to a physical vehicle they make in one of their factories.

Tesla is by definition a car company. The “we are a tech company who happens to make cars” is just Elon’s shtick to justify the P/E of the stock price. Meanwhile their operating margins are definitely car company and not tech company territory.

 

[Ostrichsak]

I wasn't talking about "investment" in your evangelical and narrow interpretation of what that implies, as I clarified later in my post. You seem to be stuck on the idea that how you buy your cars and only use cash and only buy used except when you don't minimizes your exposure to the performance of the company. It doesn't, in any meaningful way.


If you don't understand that the long-term viability and ability of a company to support, service, and maintain your vehicle (or any other products you have purchased from them) has a material impact on that vehicle's value and usefulness, then you're either deluded or just being deliberately obtuse.


I don't really care what a buyer wants as I'm not selling my home. I want a company that can effectively service, maintain, and honor the warranty of my significant investment as agreed.


You are once again manifesting concerns and putting words in peoples' mouths. I follow Tesla and news related to Tesla because I have long believed in the mission of the company and voted with my wallet to support them. I don't follow every Elon post, have never used twitter/X, but read the news and follow topics of interest to me because I make it a point to be informed. "Don't be informed" is not a serious response to the concerns being raised here. It's childish and dismissive.

Childish and dismissive, huh? Pot, kettle. Kettle, pot.

 

[Ostrichsak]

If this was the case, why is Elon not tweeting that, but instead tweeting weak statements about "existing projects will be completed?"

The reason I am skeptical that this was a well thought out plan is that you don't lay off a whole team in the middle of the night via email if you had a strong plan at all, much less one in which things get better. Not a single person on that team could help Tesla get better?

If it is a 4D chess plan, it's a shame Elon is such an atrocious communicator, despite owning a literal communications platform and using it constantly to tell us his hot takes on wokeness and immigration.

Yeah, I do, and I think most of that inside knowledge stopped coming to work yesterday. You can call it "Telsa" as if there are a bunch of smart people there that know everything, but no company works that way. They fired the literal director and whole team of the thing you are claiming Tesla is an expert at, while also claiming this is a good thing for the future of that.

No, that's not what I said. His "inside information" may very well be outside of Tesla itself, related to the NACS network. He may have based this move on that intel that we aren't privy to. This is the simple fact you seem to be struggling with.

I'm not saying he's playing 4D chess. He may be a raving lunatic and this may be the actions of said lunatic.

I'm just not wiling to spring into action to defend either side of a topic we know precious little about, even though you seem hell-bent on pitting me against the side you've chosen based on your putting words into my mouth with your posts.

 

[Chucko]

Occam's Razor - The manbaby @elonmusk was pissed because @RebeccaTinucci would not lay off 10% of her Tesla Charging team, so in a fit of rage, he fired her and her whole team.

 

[gearchruncher]

Occam's Razor - The manbaby @elonmusk was pissed because @RebeccaTinucci would not lay off 10% of her Tesla Charging team, so in a fit of rage, he fired her and her whole team.

I mean, that is what the email said.

Don't forget that she was #2 on Motor Trend's Hot 50 industry people for 2024 and he was #50.

 

[KerrySkates]

The fact that nobody outside (and for all we know inside) of Tesla knows what is actually going on here is one of the primary reasons why I believe Musk should be voted out and someone new brought on to take over the direction of the company.

I do not like Musk based on his public persona and many of the decisions he has made recently for the company, but that is irrelevant to the current situation.

So… it doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with how I started this post.

As a community of owners and users of Tesla products and services, we need to be demanding answers. Mistreating each other is not contributing to the discussion. It’s just noise and bullshit and people just need to stop. Forget about Musk. We need specifics. Details that explain what happened and what the plan is going forward. I do not believe the information Musk posted satisfies these needs.

 

[Ostrichsak]

We need specifics.

191 posts on the topic would seem to indicate otherwise. No way this many people are making up stuff to perpetuate a narrative they wish to push in complete lack of facts, right?

 

[gearchruncher]

I'm just not wiling to spring into action to defend either side of a topic we know precious little about, even though you seem hell-bent on pitting me against the side you've chosen

If you're completely neutral, and have no opinion on if completely gutting the SC staff at Tesla is a good thing or a bad thing for current Tesla owners and the EV industry in general, why are you posting here?

There are only a few possible sides here- "This is bad for Tesla, owners, and the industry, "This is good for everyone," and "This is good for Tesla shares, but crappy for everyone else." You have zero opinion on that?

At what point are we allowed to have an opinion? We're supposed to wait until 2025 to see what the outcome is? Just supposed to be OK that Tesla did this in the dark, got pissed when people found out about it, and now is giving half hearted defenses?

 

[gearchruncher]

No way this many people are making up stuff to perpetuate a narrative they wish to push in complete lack of facts, right?

What stuff are people making up, and what "narrative" are you suggesting they are supposedly "pushing" with these made up facts?

Laying off 500 people is a fact. Tesla not explaining why is a fact. Elon giving fuzzy statements about the future of the SC network is a fact.

The lack of information to Tesla shareholders and Tesla owners being 100% on Tesla is a fact.

 

[SSonnentag]

The impressing I'm getting is that Musk asked each department head to lay off 10% of their staff, presumably their least effective personnel. It sounds like one or more of these department heads didn't comply, so Musk is trying to make a statement to the remaining department heads by firing an entire department. If this is how it went down, I don't agree with the method. Firing the department head that refuses to comply would be justifiable, but it's wrong to punish good workers for the failures of others.

 

[SO16]

Someone needs to put up a death clock website of the imminent failure of the supercharger network!

/s

 

[Ostrichsak]

If you're completely neutral, and have no opinion on if completely gutting the SC staff at Tesla is a good thing or a bad thing for current Tesla owners and the EV industry in general, why are you posting here?

There are only a few possible sides here- "This is bad for Tesla, owners, and the industry, "This is good for everyone," and "This is good for Tesla shares, but crappy for everyone else." You have zero opinion on that?

At what point are we allowed to have an opinion? We're supposed to wait until 2025 to see what the outcome is? Just supposed to be OK that Tesla did this in the dark, got pissed when people found out about it, and now is giving half hearted defenses?

What stuff are people making up, and what "narrative" are you suggesting they are supposedly "pushing" with these made up facts?

Laying off 500 people is a fact. Tesla not explaining why is a fact. Elon giving fuzzy statements about the future of the SC network is a fact.

The lack of information to Tesla shareholders and Tesla owners being 100% on Tesla is a fact.

Because those aren't the only possible outcomes given the limited info we currently have just because you said they are. This strawman exercise requires that those are the only possibilities though. Those who possess critical thinking realize that not every outcome is either black or white ultimately. In fact, that's almost never the case. The outcome will be some shade of gray that those arguing in this thread are either unable or unwilling to see. All of this presenting of motivations and framing it in negativity it to drive a narrative of evil Elon is just silly. Putting it politely. Someone earlier literally stated that it was because of a romantic advance that wasn't positively received as the reason for all of this with a straight face. ON THIS VERY FORUM! People quietly went on as if nobody said anything abnormal. Dafuq are we doing?! Seriously.

 

[KerrySkates]

/s

I’m not interested in your sarcasm, but I am curious to gain insight as to what about my previous post you disagree with. Would you mind providing me your perspective as it relates to my post?

 

[SO16]

I’m not interested in your sarcasm, but I am curious to gain insight as to what about my previous post you disagree with. Would you mind providing me your perspective as it relates to my post?

Musk should not be voted out.

Just because he doesn’t conform to some peoples “opinions”, gets some facts wrong on X at times and that Tesla has hit a bit of a rough patch with the stock and sales (even though last year sales did very well), doesn’t mean people should overreact and say FIRE HIM!

The arm flailing is beyond ridiculous. There’s been other turbulent times and Tesla ends up doing well.

Elon’s track record is beyond stellar all things considered and these armchair quarterbacks (myself included) can just disappear. The world wouldn’t miss them.

As far as the second half of your post, information will come. So far, the business is still operating the sites.

 

[KerrySkates]

Musk should not be voted out.

Just because he doesn’t conform to some peoples “opinions” and that Tesla has hit a bit of a rough patch with the stock and sales (even though last year sales did very well), doesn’t mean people should overreact and say FIRE HIM!

The arm flailing is beyond ridiculous.

To entertain your concerns, you should consider that not everyone is being reactionary to recent controversies. My opinion isn’t based on a short-term, short-sighted view. I have considered many years of the decisions going at Tesla to come to my conclusion.

Now that I’ve entertained your perspective by expanding on my thoughts, I will politely refrain from interacting with you further on this disagreement over whether or not Musk should remain a leader at Tesla because that was not the point of my previous post and would only lead to me to being dragged into the bullshit, irrelevant conversations that were the point of my post.

 

[gearchruncher]

Just because he doesn’t conform to some peoples “opinions”, gets some facts wrong on X at times and that Tesla has hit a bit of a rough patch with the stock and sales (even though last year sales did very well), doesn’t mean people should overreact and say FIRE HIM!

Yeah, I mean, it's not rational to fire someone over one small transgression or rough patch. You can only do that to teams of 500 people via email

Elon is literally running around laying off and blaming people at Tesla for the exact same "rough patch" that you are saying we shouldn't fire him for. Rules for thee but not for meeeeeee!

 

[KelvinMace]

What you don't know is if that dismissing of 500 people will have ANY impact on the existing structure or up time.

Yet here everyone is jumping to conclusions and freaking out over that which they actually know little, if anything, about. For all you know, it could be a step to actually improve the experience but that wouldn't support the narrative, would it?

Is it really so hard to believe that the entirety of the automotive industry adopting NACS may have an impact on the actual NACS network? Do you think that Tesla wouldn't have any inside knowledge of anything coming along that may impact this for users?

Every one is always ready to claim Musk has a method to his madness. Sometimes, especially for those of us who read what he writes on Twitter, it is just madness (and probably drug-fueled madness at that).

 

[brianman]

The mission to make EV charging universally available was an Old Elon goal. We have new Elon now, a guy who moved is HQ to a state where it is illegal to sell his cars. He also courts the support of politicians who would trash the entire green energy/EV movement given half a chance. Tesla had a HUGE head start and branding advantage (an advantage Musk sullies every day on Twitter) over the competition. McDonalds has tons of competitors, but still manages quite nicely since it had a first mover advantage. Tesla Superchargers were synonymous with the words "reliability" and "ubiquity". It would have been a LONG time before any competitor would come close to infringing on that advantage.

Will be a business school case study for sure:
How Tesla managed to throw away everything, with small missteps and colossal mistakes.

And maybe a creative writing course:
If you could rewrite history with only the sane Elon days included, how would the world be different?

 

[KelvinMace]

To entertain your concerns, you should consider that not everyone is being reactionary to recent controversies. My opinion isn’t based on a short-term, short-sighted view. I have considered many years of the decisions going at Tesla to come to my conclusion.

Now that I’ve entertained your perspective by expanding on my thoughts, I will politely refrain from interacting with you further on this disagreement over whether or not Musk should remain a leader at Tesla because that was not the point of my previous post and would only lead to me to being dragged into the bullshit, irrelevant conversations that were the point of my post.

I have watched Musk descend into paranoia and text-book narcissism over the years. This is what you get when you mix a social media echo chamber, wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and an initially small personality defect.