How much was the SuperCharger team worth?

[MontyFloyd]

(Something I wanted to post weeks ago but was too busy.)

From the few posts made in social media by people involved with the Super Charger build out team, it is obvious they were busy at dozens of locations, some in high traffic areas which likely meant tens of million $$ projects.

Don't need to mention massive quantity of locations and chargers at each with reliability light years ahead of nearest rival, and that entire auto industry is switching to NACS.

Just that unit of Tesla alone must have been worth hundreds of millions of $$. An EV charger is the ultimate magnet to your store so companies would pay handsomely for guaranteed traffic to your store forever.

So how much would Tesla get by selling off that unit to someone like BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, or maybe spin off as sperate company and receive royalties?

 

[FLRifleman]

So how much would Tesla get by selling off that unit to someone like BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, or maybe spin off as sperate company and receive royalties?

(1) The operating unit would have to be profitable to operate as a stand-alone entity, which is uncertain.
(2) There is nothing preventing any of those companies from installing their own equipment currently. An off the highway gas station is the ideal place to be a general fueling station, including DC charging. I've seen a few like that already. It just comes down to the economics of doing so. A business can't make that kind of investment without a reasonable expectation that it will be profitable.

 

[MontyFloyd]

(1) The operating unit would have to be profitable to operate as a stand-alone entity, which is uncertain.

There are several companies that install chargers, the precedent exists.

(2) There is nothing preventing any of those companies from installing their own equipment currently. An off the highway gas station is the ideal place to be a general fueling station, including DC charging. I've seen a few like that already. It just comes down to the economics of doing so. A business can't make that kind of investment without a reasonable expectation that it will be profitable.

Expect a company used to installing gas stations to easily install charging stalls? (points to car makers who thought they could easily make BEV).
I should also given examples of super markets, malls, and grocery stores doing same.

Not bad questions to ask.

 

[Tam]

The team brought in $28.8 million from awarded fund NEVI from the government.

https://insideevs.com/news/718664/tesla-supercharger-nevi-charger-funding/amp/

 

[TomServo]

I read some of the duties were initially transferred to the Energy/Solar team. That kind of makes sense if true.

 

[zoomer0056]

So how much would Tesla get by selling off that unit to someone like BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, or maybe spin off as sperate company and receive royalties?

That'll never happen. Tesla will not "sell off" any part of itself.

 

[MontyFloyd]

That'll never happen. Tesla will not "sell off" any part of itself.

And shutting entire parts of the company is better? Imagine Tesla shut its battery division to focus on AI? (everyone makes batteries)

Just saying if profits is the goal the smart move will be to spin/sell off that division and make $$$.

 

[Tam]

And shutting entire parts of the company is better? Imagine Tesla shut its battery division to focus on AI? (everyone makes batteries)

Just saying if profits is the goal the smart move will be to spin/sell off that division and make $$$.

I am not management so I have no idea but my guess is it is quicker to fire workers and shut down a department like Supercharger than to sell it.

 

[zoomer0056]

Tesla shut its battery division

This'll never happen and they won't sell off the battery division either. Where are these rediculous ideas coming from?

 

[Tam]

This'll never happen and they won't sell off the battery division either. Where are these rediculous ideas coming from?

Tesla did shut down its battery swapping department after running it for a while at Harris Ranch.

Battery Swap Pilot Program | Tesla

www.tesla.com

 

[ewoodrick]

And shutting entire parts of the company is better? Imagine Tesla shut its battery division to focus on AI? (everyone makes batteries)

Just saying if profits is the goal the smart move will be to spin/sell off that division and make $$$.

They didn't shut them down. They are up and operating.

Most of the "issue" came from a high-level manager that was ask to cut a percent of the team and would not do so. Elon then showed her how it is done.

But as with most things Tesla, the speed that they act at is FAR beyond that of other organizations. BP has their own team and making small headway into the market, mostly in Europe. I dare say Tesla is installing more Superchargers weekly than BP has done in their lifetime.

 

[MontyFloyd]

They didn't shut them down. They are up and operating.

Ask the dozens of sub-contractors that reported they lost all access to Tesla, not just workers in the SC department but could not contact the main office.
There is no question the entire department was gone, until there was the well documented mad scramble to rehire some back.

Firing an entire critical to success team because of one person is text book of what not to do in a company, period. Fire that person, not the team.

 

[MontyFloyd]

I am not management so I have no idea but my guess is it is quicker to fire workers and shut down a department like Supercharger than to sell it.

It is, but was there an urgent need to do so? Tesla going bankrupt? Elon desperate for $$$ (no because his bonus was based on other metrics).

Downsizing is perfectly legit
Massive dumbsizing that disrupts active projects on set schedules opening up to potential breach of contracts and lawsuits is not.
(edit: added emphasis)

 

[zoomer0056]

breach of contracts and lawsuits

Did those things happen? I've not heard anything like that has happened.

 

[MontyFloyd]

Did those things happen? I've not heard anything like that happened.

I wrote
"opening up to potential breach of contracts and lawsuits"
An unnecessary risk.

 

[zoomer0056]

I wrote
"opening up to potential breach of contracts and lawsuits"
An unnecessary risk.

"The sky could have potentially fallen, the sky could have potentially fallen." After the fact speculation ... jeeze Louise. What is that, post hypothetical speculation?

 

[Tam]

"The sky could have potentially fallen, the sky could have potentially fallen." After the fact speculation ... jeeze Louise. What is that, post hypothetical speculation?

It is not the end of the world in a layoff or even to fire a whole Supercharger department.

The question is is that helpful at all?

Some workers on the way to continue to work on a Supercharger site were told to stop and turn around and left the site unfinished:

Tesla website used to say that GM would access Supercharger by Spring 2025 but is now revised as "soon."

I hope this kind of "soon" as in FSD that would drive without a human "soon."

 

[zoomer0056]

The question is is that helpful at all?

The question is more rightfully, was it helpfull. That question is deceptively very superficial. There's way more going on than the most complete post hypothetical speculator can speculate on. Nobody here on TMC knows the inner workings at Tesla, only time and history can say if decisions made at Tesla were the very best.

 

[TheLastDon]

I read some of the duties were initially transferred to the Energy/Solar team. That kind of makes sense if true.

This makes more sense. It's not like they abandoned the super charger business. Elon is very fond of that unit as he's said it's a fortune 500 company in itself. It's quite amazing that Elon figured out a way not only to build the cars, but to be the owner of all the "gas" stations for those cars.

 

[ewoodrick]

Ask the dozens of sub-contractors that reported they lost all access to Tesla, not just workers in the SC department but could not contact the main office.
There is no question the entire department was gone, until there was the well documented mad scramble to rehire some back.

Firing an entire critical to success team because of one person is text book of what not to do in a company, period. Fire that person, not the team.

Yes, things were cut off. But lots of things have been turned back on and people rehired.

You may be right when you say that the one person only should be fired. But when you fire the team, you definitely get your point across to the remainder of the company. And that can be text-book management.

I suspect that there were multiple layers of management balking. And I suspect that in many cases they should have balked, but along the same line, they evidently weren't well communicating their needs.
But most everyone in management knows that when it comes down to a reduction in force (RIF), it's kill or be killed. A RIF doesn't have anything to do with how good or bad you are, it's just cut the numbers. It's a really crappy move that essentially every large organization makes every few years.