I am dumbfounded by the Tesla Supercharger Team layoffs

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Mark W

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https://electrek.co/2024/04/29/tesla-conducting-more-layoffs-including-entire-supercharger-team/

According to reports, Tesla laid off their "entire Supercharger team" in the early morning yesterday. I'm not sure how that's possible, but it's over 24 hours later and I haven't heard what I thought I was going to hear, something like "No, it's not the entire team, just a large portion of it", etc. Also, based on the negative reactions to it by so many in the industry, I thought you would see some sort of explanation from Elon by now.

I have read that numerous in progress supercharger installations have stopped.

I have been thinking about it, and I can't figure out a logical explanation for it. Here's my theory, just based on a few things I read. We all know Tesla just went through a big round of layoffs. My theory is that Musk asked the lead executives of the supercharger division to make major cuts and got pushback from them. He got pissed and said okay, everyone's gone. My theory is that he was not happy with some performance of the team, like no v4 rollout and Cybertruck charging issues, and acted impulsively. My guess is he will build the team back up as a leaner group, re-hiring some people and hiring cheaper people. These are just my crazy guesses because I can't make any sense of it, I am not that knowledgeable about Tesla operations.

If this decision was made before the decision to let the other automakers use the Supercharger network, I could see it making some sense. Just normal cost cutting during a bad stretch for the company. Installing superchargers must be a big cash drain. But they made the decision to allow all to use Superchargers. Why do that if they couldn't make a lot of money from it? They gave up a major competitive advantage they had. Why would they give that up if the charging business would not be profitable for them? They can't absorb all the other EVs and not continue to aggressively build out the network. That will piss off everyone. Some people think it's Elon just being crazy, but I have to think there is some other reason that we just don't know yet. I think some new information should come out shortly.
 
Just a couple of points:
  • 9% fewer cars made Q1 2024
    • 18% profit margin means ~11% lost revenue
  • ~14% employees fired to bring expenses inline with revenue
  • J3400 (NACS) team accomplished goal
    • Did they move to another productive goal or service?
  • No announcement of layoffs in Tesla Buffalo plant making chargers
Nobody has a "right" to a job. The best time of past projects has been when there is a budget problem. That squeezes out innovation that big budgets ignore.

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
Just a couple of points:
  • 9% fewer cars made Q1 2024
    • 18% profit margin means ~11% lost revenue
  • ~14% employees fired to bring expenses inline with revenue
  • J3400 (NACS) team accomplished goal
    • Did they move to another productive goal or service?
  • No announcement of layoffs in Tesla Buffalo plant making chargers
Nobody has a "right" to a job. The best time of past projects has been when there is a budget problem. That squeezes out innovation that big budgets ignore.

Bob Wilson
Click to expand...
Yes, layoffs always make sense when a company goes through a downturn. I'm sure that the Supercharger staff had some fat to trim. An announcement that they were cutting 20% of the staff wouldn't have made much news. But elimination of the "entire team" doesn't make any sense at all to anyone. So much so that most people in the industry are waiting for some logical explanation/clarification.
 
It's possible that Elon is going to sell the Tesla charging network to someone else. Is this going to happen too early. Will this turn folks off from buying a new Tesla?

He's clearly doesn't see making cars that don't drive themselves as Tesla's future. So far the stock hasn't cratered. So apparently folks still believe in him.
 
marshall said:
It's possible that Elon is going to sell the Tesla charging network to someone else. Is this going to happen too early. Will this turn folks off from buying a new Tesla?

He's clearly doesn't see making cars that don't drive themselves as Tesla's future. So far the stock hasn't cratered. So apparently folks still believe in him.
Click to expand...

Well, letting go of the people that know how it all works would be a funny way of preparing to sell the thing.

Which isn't quite a correct description - apparently the people that do maintenance are still around.
 
ericy said:
apparently the people that do maintenance are still around.
Click to expand...
This from a now former Supercharger Tech:
"John said he shared the same concerns. "What I'm hearing is, there's still some guys in the field, but they're gonna be pretty over-tasked,
My personal opinion is that quality is going to deteriorate," Angelo said. "Customers are going to start seeing issues last longer than what they were used to.
Don't get me wrong, we still have a great team on the energy side," he said. "But we got a lot of issues fixed remotely. The amount of work that needs to be done far exceeds" the amount of people left, he said.
It will be much more difficult with so many fewer people on the Supercharger team now, especially given the workload those teams dealt with. "I was pretty much available 19 to 24 hours a day. I had to stay connected to my phone all of the time," he said. "I sacrificed a lot of family time."

Unfortunately I wouldn't get my hopes up for any improvement and will probably see a lot more issues than before, especially considering the additional manufactures with their "Tesla Supercharging deals" adding soon to the burden.
 
bwilson4web said:
Just a couple of points:
  • 9% fewer cars made Q1 2024
    • 18% profit margin means ~11% lost revenue
  • ~14% employees fired to bring expenses inline with revenue
  • J3400 (NACS) team accomplished goal
    • Did they move to another productive goal or service?
  • No announcement of layoffs in Tesla Buffalo plant making chargers
Nobody has a "right" to a job. The best time of past projects has been when there is a budget problem. That squeezes out innovation that big budgets ignore.

Bob Wilson
Click to expand...
Has zero to do with firing the ENTIRE Supercharger team. They didn't move anywhere but out the door.

The Superchargers are the very core of Tesla without the chargers there is no Tesla vehicles. One can only assumr Elon is making a Twitter boneheaded move. I suspect he threw one of his well knwon 2 year old tantrums. He needs to go , it's time for Tesla board to show him the door.
 
Here is where Musk is spending Tesla money..on FSD ..

"Elon Musk says any company that isn’t spending $10 billion on AI this year like Tesla won’t be able to compete"

"


Instead of admitting that FSD is NOT happing anytime soon ...he just keeps throwing money at it .

he just sacked the entire Supercharger teams.. the core of Tesla . He really needs to clear his brain . Start sleeping and layoff he drugs, I'm serious he is addicted ..well known fact he has a drug problem. Throwing away Teslas core busines so he can keep throwing money down the black hole of FSD.
 
Why didn't Elon instead increase charging fees to pay the salaries of the 500 Supercharger employees he fired. Make more money and piss off people: a Muskian win-win scenario.
 
insightman said:
Why didn't Elon instead increase charging fees to pay the salaries of the 500 Supercharger employees he fired. Make more money and piss off people: a Muskian win-win scenario.
Click to expand...

The reports I saw were that Musk was demanding that Tinucci make deep cuts in her team. She pushed back, so instead Musk laid off her and her entire team.
 
ericy said:
The reports I saw were that Musk was demanding that Tinucci make deep cuts in her team. She pushed back, so instead Musk laid off her and her entire team.
Click to expand...
Which demonstrates that he isnt in control , he took an emotional response . Just demonstrates how his thinking isnt clear. He has anger managment issues and I'll say it again ..he doesnt sleep and he does way too many drugs.

He just screwed over tens of thousands of other workers ..sub contractors , energy companies putting up infrastructure for the chargers etc.. along with the 500 in the Supercharging Dept.

did you hear about the email sent to all the contractors/subcontrators/energy comapnies.. Stop order on all new Supercharger projects. Tesla sent a generic email to all of them and that thy also dont know how or when they will get paid (all the contractors) because there is no one left in Supercharging that share that info..who is even owed . lol

total clusterduck.

at bare mininum Tesla board needs to demand Drug testing from Elon(just like you would with any other employee) as well as anger management.. he acts like a child when he doesnt get his way . Personally I think it's time for hime to leave Tesla .. Would like to see his work load to a level that is more manageable..maybe just run SpaceX ..and sell Twitter/X //thats mnessing with his miond as well
 
EEK! EEK!

I'm about to drive 700 miles to Munro & Associates. Are the Tesla SuperChargers going to be gone?

Of course not. You' all need to hold off trying to guess Elon's mind. Eventually, he may or may not explain he is thinking. As for me, I'll be in Ann Arbor tomorrow and drive back a day or so later.

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
EEK! EEK!

I'm about to drive 700 miles to Munro & Associates. Are the Tesla SuperChargers going to be gone?

Of course not. You' all need to hold off trying to guess Elon's mind. Eventually, he may or may not explain he is thinking. As for me, I'll be in Ann Arbor tomorrow and drive back a day or so later.

Bob Wilson
Click to expand...
You still dont get it do you..

He also just handed the top charging network talent to his competitors.. GM Ford Styelantis, Electrify America ..he just gave them the best charging talent on the planet.he's an idiot

Could Electrify America go from worst to First with this gift from elon ! lol as consumers this may end up very well for us as this top talent gets pickup by all the competitors. Tesla will end up having to higher Electrify Americas team ..lol too funny.
 
OneEV said:
You still dont get it do you..

He also just handed the top charging network talent to his competitors.. GM Ford Styelantis, Electrify America ..he just gave them the best charging talent on the planet.he's an idiot

Could Electrify America go from worst to First with this gift from elon ! lol as consumers this may end up very well for us as this top talent gets pickup by all the competitors. Tesla will end up having to higher Electrify Americas team ..lol too funny.
Click to expand...
Well he can sell the network. The supercharger network isn't key to where Elon is taking Tesla. Eventually, I believe Elon will sell the network. It's even possible that Shell could buy the it.

Secondly, we don't know if the folks at Tesla can get to level 4 self-driving nation wide. Elon certainly knows more then us as to where Tesla is at with FSD. If they can get to work, their stock goes to the moon, and the other OEM's stock crashes. Elon has just increased the bet on it.

Thirdly, I don't know how special the former employees of Tesla's superchargers where, but some of their work can be handled through contracts with other companies if Elon wants to continue building out the network.

Fourthly, building cars at Tesla is now taking the backseat. It doesn't appear to me that any new models outside of the model 2 will be cars that you drive yourself, and it's possible the model 2 will be the last new model period.

This does leave the OEMs in a bit of bind. Ford and Rivian are the only two OEMs that can currently use their network. So it's going to be interesting to see if Tesla just opens the network all at once and lets the other OEMs figure it out on their own, or if Elon kept a few folks to handle that stuff.

I guess we will see how much to affects sales of Teslas and in EVs in general. Elon may have been too early and over done it.

So far Tesla's stock hasn't cratered. So investors still believe in Elon.
 
OneEV said:
He also just handed the top charging network talent to his competitors.
Click to expand...
Based on their clueless performance to date, Tesla's charging-network competitors probably haven't yet heard the news about Tesla's 500 fired employees. When they finally get around to talking with Tesla's fired employees, the other charging-network companies will recoil with horror when they learn about the high level of money and material resources it takes to create a reliable charging network. "Impossible! It's no wonder Elon fired you!"
 
Have to admit, I still haven't figured out what Musk is up to. But am sure he didn't do this without some plan we don't know about yet. We can speculate. Sell it, rehire a new team, somehow use this as leverage to get more govt funding, screw the competitors that were adopting his NACS standard, or who knows. Guess we will have to wait and see.
 
I predicted in late 2022 that relatively soon, like in 2-3 years, Tesla would be bankrupt or sold off at fire sale prices if Musk continues as CEO. I may or may not have gotten the timing quite right, but other than that I stand by my prediction. Elon's a psycho, and ultimately a big, complex company can't survive with a nutcase at the helm.
 
Bruce M. said:
I predicted in late 2022 that relatively soon, like in 2-3 years, Tesla would be bankrupt or sold off at fire sale prices if Musk continues as CEO. I may or may not have gotten the timing quite right, but other than that I stand by my prediction. Elon's a psycho, and ultimately a big, complex company can't survive with a nutcase at the helm.
Click to expand...
What do you think would happen to Tesla if Musk was no longer at the helm?
 
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