Supercharger team sacked?

[FastLaneJB]

Let's take Twitter out of this which seems an extremely emotive issue and a red herring on the topic of his share option award.

Not sure if you watch Shark Tank or Dragon's Den but how much equity do the shark's/dragon's take when they do a deal (and on merely a promise of boosting the company value and before achieving any result or even if no result in achieved)? 30% or more?

The share value of Tesla increased more than tenfold during the period (including the recent share price declines). In that context and on the basis that he only achieved the option awards after the results were obtained, it doesn't seem outrageous to me. The value is a huge number but so is the company value appreciation. He has made a lot of people seriously wealthy.

On a side but related note, how do you feel about the lawyers in the case seeking $6 billion, estimated to imply an hourly rate of $288,000? So those lawyers thought Elon's pay was outrageous but want $6 billion. I wonder if you multiply that hourly rate by the number of hours Elon worked without any pay what number it comes up to? That to me is unbridled greed.

I wasn’t aware that Tesla is a one man band and Elon did everything.

The employees of Tesla achieved that, Elon just piloted the ship. Do captains get the best pay? Yes of course but roughly at a guess the average pay of the more skilled folks in Tesla is say $200k a year.

Tesla Salaries | Levels.fyi

Tesla's salary ranges from $48,918 in total compensation per year for a Customer Service at the low-end to $542,640 for a Legal at the high-end.

www.levels.fyi

So the captain in this case is making 27.5 million percent more than some of the better paid, very smart Tesla workers. I don’t care if you’re Jesus himself, you ain’t worth that much money.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Look at the title of the thread.

Feel free to start a 'Elon is a W@nker' thread. It's obviously needed

It’s somewhat related because Elon being a wanker is what might have killed off the supercharger network or at least put it into decline.

Honestly quite annoyed as it’s still a great reason to buy a Tesla. Even if they open it up, as long as they install more stalls and keep it working well plus let Tesla’s get the cheaper rates. It’s a move they had to make but still affords them an advantage.

 

[mspohr]

Look at the title of the thread.

Feel free to start a 'Elon is a W@nker' thread. It's obviously needed

The issue is Elon' s fitness as a manager.
Sacking the Supercharger team is a symptom.

 

[mspohr]

 

[FastLaneJB]

Thanks, he sums this up nicely.

 

[tomorrowman]

The issue is Elon' s fitness as a manager.
Sacking the Supercharger team is a symptom.

Well until you know to what extent the supercharger team was gutted, where (was it primary USA ?) and why the whole conversation is pointless.

If for example it's primarily the US team who had:
a) managed to move the entire North American auto industry to using NACS ie Tesla connector b) opened up the supercharging network to other sito makers
c) created a V4 supercharger with longer charge cables, tap & pay payment support support up to 1000v charging, sellable to 3rd parties to setup their own charging networks and installable at a fraction of the cost and time as it's competitors

You may come the the conclusion the hard work had been done and the team was being resized and/or restructured to focus on BAU build out globally with some R&D.

If this is the case he is an extremely fit, if not downright ruthless, manager.

Again all speculation and there is way too much projection of personal biases with incomplete facts.

I suggest you all wind your necks in for god's sake

 

[browellm]

Again all speculation and there is way too much projection of personal biases with incomplete facts.

The supercharger network will continue to grow at an appropriate rate.

I suggest you all wind your necks in for god's sake

Be the change you want to see.

 

[tomorrowman]

Already doing. I'm meditating to the sounds of the rain forest, descending to my Zen place where all I have is happy and positive thoughts

 

[EVMeister]

Elon clarified "the plan":

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785406795814510785

 

[tomorrowman]

Ah well it was an entertaining thread regardless

 

[garycat]

The only logical explanation is that Tesla has copied Toyota's technology, and is going to start making self-charging cars.

 

[KennethS]

I wasn’t aware that Tesla is a one man band and Elon did everything.

The employees of Tesla achieved that, Elon just piloted the ship. Do captains get the best pay? Yes of course but roughly at a guess the average pay of the more skilled folks in Tesla is say $200k a year.

Tesla Salaries | Levels.fyi

Tesla's salary ranges from $48,918 in total compensation per year for a Customer Service at the low-end to $542,640 for a Legal at the high-end.

www.levels.fyi

So the captain in this case is making 27.5 million percent more than some of the better paid, very smart Tesla workers. I don’t care if you’re Jesus himself, you ain’t worth that much money.

Do none of those people receive stock options?

 

[brkaus]

If you made all of your purchasing decisions based on whether or not you don't like the CEOs politics, etc., you would never buy anything. Most CEOs are right wing (they just don't advertise it like Musk does).
Look up Henry Ford if you want an eye-opener.

I don’t think that carries through all cases because most CEOs are not “in your face”.

 

[steerbyfsd]

I've got a completely unverified hypothesis:
1) Elon and Tesla aren't dumb, they know that good charging networks are highly critical to high levels of EV adoption.
2) They got almost all NA market to adopt NACS while in Europe they followed existing standards that were getting traction eg CCS.
3) They know that it's a team game (with all EV manufacturers) now to get the supercharger network built out (whether in NA with NACS or in other places in the world with CCS or whatever standards become most popular.
4) Supercharging network is a commodity, and a capital and resource intensive business (high capex to build, ongoing maintenance costs to maintain and deploy, dealing with local regulators for permits, etc). Tesla prefers higher margin businesses and ones with greater competitive moat and differentiation (eg FSD, robotaxi, robotics or hardware bsinesses with a better moat - eg cars, batteries, energy, etc). Heck in the beginning they said they would operate the Supercharger network at break even and not try to make money off it so they clearly initially viewed the supercharger network as a means to enable people to actually buy and use the cars, but not as a strategic source of profit (because in the long run there isn't much profit because they have to buy the energy from a local utlity).
5) So they decide to build the hardware and license it (like recent deals they've done with BP and EG) and let other people build out the boring, low margin, capital intensive business that now every car manufacturer that wants to sell EVs is reliant on. Yes they may be walking away from some profit if they were to eventually try to operate charging as a profitable business (especially to non Tesla EVs) but the truth is these margins weren't durable since electricity is a commodity so charging costs should be very much in line with underlying costs.
6) Maybe they continue to build a few locations where needed, or some of the "flagship" locations that are fun/brand halo like the drive in diner, but the boring old regular "gas stations" they lean on others to finish the job they started because there isn't much interesting business in building out the next generation of "gas stations".
7) I wonder if a weird side effect of this is that free supercharging is only available at Tesla operated supercharges and as the network gets built out to maturity by a boatload of other companies, Tesla's liabilities tied to costs of free supercharging go down as more charging gets done at third party operated charging stations which don't honor FUSC.

 

[Pants]

Well until you know to what extent the supercharger team was gutted, where (was it primary USA ?) and why the whole conversation is pointless.

Hasn’t stopped you contributing several posts to this pointless conversation

 

[tomorrowman]

Hasn’t stopped you contributing several posts to this pointless conversation

It would be rude not to. Somebody has to provide an alternative view from time to time. See it as a form of community service

 

[Type2]

It would be rude not to. Somebody has to provide an alternative view from time to time. See it as a form of community service

We are all truly grateful for your selfless altruism.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Do none of those people receive stock options?

Some do but it's not going to make them a billion is it. They also have the risk of getting kicked to the curb losing those RSU's.

Cannot believe you think someone deserves 55 billion in compensation and are defending it.

 

[tomorrowman]

We are all truly grateful for your selfless altruism.

I know

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Mod comment: can we drop the more personal stuff now