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?

 

[TespaceX]

I will say the Superchargers I have used have all been underutilized. While I know there are waiting lines at a few, I've never been to one where even half the slots were in use, and sometimes only a couple. Many of them should be at higher utilization - business 101.

I see you don’t live in California.
Even with a very dense coverage of superchargers in my area, there are lines on any random weekday.

 

[tivoboy]

Geez...
Q: what percentage of cars on the road in North America are EVs?

Answer: about 1%!


Currently new EV registrations are running at about 5%. We're nowhere near the required number of DCFCs needed to service the increase in EV registrations and the increasing % of EV adoption.

If there's one thing that's certain is that we need way more DCFC stations.

The numbers about EV “on the road” are a bit of a misnomer and I would argue much higher than 1%… while there are ~ 280M vehicles REGISTERED in the USA, there are roughly ~ 100-110M that are DRIVEN each day. We have four cars, ONE gets ~ 5 miles a day of use on avg.. (ok, technically I have a vintage car too that is registered which gets NO use). Yes, one of these cars does ~ 3000 miles a year, but that is mostly road trips and vacations and some longer work commuting.

I would wager that of the EV’s purchased in the past 5-10 years MORE of them see much MORE use than the average “registered” vehicle in the USA.

So, while it’s not 1%, I would bet it closer to 2-3% on avg per day on the road seeing use.

As other studies have shown, 85% of EV owners charge at home.. for their daily needs. So, it’s really more about the longer journeys, road trips, easier access to local charging for Multi Family dwellings, chargers at work, shopping, etc.

Maybe their is some visionary re-alignment going on with Tesla and SC deployments that we just don’t see yet - I’m eager to understand it better as a driver and shareholder.

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

New Z'lnd is a 3 hour plane ride from Australia and has its own Parliamentary Democracy going on. Average temperature about 20 degrees less. Better hair. Not founded by convicts. Proper mountains with snow on in. No snakes. No crocodiles. Not too many Australians. We only get the mild mannered ones who can handle a bit of cold. Get the picture?

Enjoyed a meat pie and a speights at lunch riding bike from Queenstown out to Arrowtown and back once a few years back. As part of a couple week NZ tour to visit my kid who spent several months doing work stay with his back pack after graduating high school. Great place! Would love to go back and rent an EV (instead of a Toyota Previa van) this time and know the charging network is solid!

 

[Midpack]

I see you don’t live in California.
Even with a very dense coverage of superchargers in my area, there are lines on any random weekday.

Yes, I've read that - and acknowledged same in my post. But I can tell you superchargers are (way) underutilized in many parts of the country. The one I use most often is 12 stalls, and I've seen from 2 to 6 stalls in use on any given visit, usually 4 or less - that's not a good use of resources. They should evaluate on a case by case basis, expand where needed, and wait to expand in other areas where utilization is low. I can tell you they just added a supercharger near me, that was really not needed based on low utilization at the existing superchargers nearby. Maybe that's why Elon was dissatisfied with the former supercharger team?

What Elon said makes perfect sense from a business perspective, addressing your concern and mine. "Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100 percent uptime and expansion of existing locations."

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

Yes, I've read that - and acknowledged same in my post. But I can tell you superchargers are (way) underutilized in many parts of the country. They should evaluate on a case by case basis, expand where needed, and wait to expand in other areas where utilization is low. I can tell you they just added a supercharger near me, that was really not needed based on low utilization at the existing superchargers nearby. Maybe that's why Elon was dissatisfied with the former supercharger team?

What Elon said makes perfect sense from a business perspective, addressing your concern and mine. "Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100 percent uptime and expansion of existing locations."

Except that the cars are not able to be used to their potential in much of the country that is rutal if you were only going to expand based on utilization. Much like the Tennessee valley authority was needed in order to get utilities to rule parts of Tennessee. Profitability in an individual location is not the only consideration if you were looking a bit more broadly. If your version of business and says that you are only concerned with the next quarterly report, well… But let’s just say I disagree with that approach as a sustainable longer-term business model and representations were made via plans to fill in more routes inland and away from urban centers to make the vehicles more useful across the country. I would like to see the company continue with that. TLDR, utilization is not the only factor.

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

New Z'lnd is a 3 hour plane ride

Wanaka was probably my favorite overall area, including some of the glaciers you could hike to, mountain biking, etc. Is Tesla supercharging up in Wanaka? As I recall, it was a rugged country and there was a lot of driving through rural parts. Hoping NZ gets all all the chargers it needs.

 

[Midpack]

I wish I knew more about supercharger utilization, state by state, or finer - I confess I don't know those details. Here's a current article that may be a little more hopeful despite Tesla's pull back?

Why Tesla's supercharger shakeup won't slow down the EV rollout https://www.fastcompany.com/91117613/tesla-supercharger-ev-charger-network

OTOH, IF the supercharger layoffs result in deteriorating maintenance and uptime at superchargers, that would be a setback. Time will tell.

 

[Dear_OP]

Sounds like...

- Some regions need to grow
- Some regions need to slow
- All regions need reliable uptime

Pretty straightforward to me with good analytics. An AI can figure this out. Yes I see the bloat of 500+ SC team. Surgical vs Carpet bomb. OK got it Mr. Musk. All Hail Supreme Leader! Oh wait... wrong one.

 

[DuncanM]

I wish I knew more about supercharger utilization, state by state, or finer - I confess I don't know those details. Here's a current article that may be a little more hopeful despite Tesla's pull back?

Why Tesla's supercharger shakeup won't slow down the EV rollout https://www.fastcompany.com/91117613/tesla-supercharger-ev-charger-network

OTOH, IF the supercharger layoffs result in deteriorating maintenance and uptime at superchargers, that would be a setback. Time will tell.

The NYT takes a look at the situation:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/business/energy-environment/tesla-electric-vehicles-supercharger.html

(BTW, you can read a number of articles for free by signing up to the NYT and they had (maybe still have a 6 month sub for $1)

 

[Genie]

New Z'lnd is a 3 hour plane ride from Australia and has its own Parliamentary Democracy going on. Average temperature about 20 degrees less. Better hair. Not founded by convicts. Proper mountains with snow on in. No snakes. No crocodiles. Not too many Australians. We only get the mild mannered ones who can handle a bit of cold. Get the picture?

Don’t forget #AllBlacks!

 

[LostVector]

Armchair quarterbacks. While Elon certainly appears to act out publicly, none of us know the details or the inside story. It's easy to tell yourselves you know better, when you really couldn't. We will see how this plays out. Elon's achievements are many, whether his apparent faults hurt his businesses in the long run remains to be seen.

I will say the Superchargers I have used have all been underutilized. While I know there are waiting lines at a few, I've never been to one where even half the slots were in use, and sometimes only a couple. Many of them should be at higher utilization - business 101.

Nah, I've seen far too many cases when people just assume because a company has had success in the past they aren't about to f up. Guess what, they usually f'ed up. There's clearly enough info here to justify extreme skepticism.

 

[Videomatic3]

I'm pretty worried about this too and makes me question purchasing more tesla products, and makes me further question the products I've already bought.

But I was told to not worry about it, the team has been shifted to another department. Different focuses such as reliability and expanding current sites are priority. More of a money cutting thing because new sites cost more than expanding current ones.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

But I was told to not worry about it, the team has been shifted to another department.

What Elon said makes perfect sense from a business perspective, addressing your concern and mine. "Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100 percent uptime and expansion of existing locations."

Yet there's been plenty of reporting to indicate contracts in place are not being attended to. Maintenance people gainfully employed, keeping up availability as fast as they can, are down the road.

That is lousy business. Anyone with any common sense knows this.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

Wanaka was probably my favorite overall area, including some of the glaciers you could hike to, mountain biking, etc. Is Tesla supercharging up in Wanaka? As I recall, it was a rugged country and there was a lot of driving through rural parts. Hoping NZ gets all all the chargers it needs.

I haven't checked up on Wanaka lately. They have charging with ChargeNet which is enough to get me home with a wee zap.

It's a bit of a SC desert on the west coast. You can get all up and down the east side as far as Dunedin and over to Wanaka and Queenstown via Omarama on SC power.

South of here and the west may be left over to ChargeNet the way things are looking. The Queenstown downtown ChargeNet is well utilised. They are doing a 300kW fast charger soonish.

The SC by the airport is never in use when I happen to be passing which is less accurate as I am not there often. Hotels have overnight charging for guests to book in.

Eventually all chargers will have to be fast chargers and probably a whole lot faster again. Think how long it takes to gas up your car. This is another reason they won't give up on hydrogen fuel cell tech in a hurry.

 

[Transformer]

Per Fast Company, https://www.fastcompany.com/91116917/elon-musk-tesla-charging-network-layoffs

The network hasn’t been cheap to build and maintain, but with revenue from other automakers and their customers, it was also making ever-bigger piles of money. Along with its home-battery business, where profits were up 140% year-on-year, charging has been a rare area of growth for the company. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, one of the top Tesla analysts, last year estimated the value of the charging business at $100 billion.

Tesla doesn’t disclose its Supercharger earnings numbers, but recent estimates by Bloomberg NEF say the company generated around $1.74 billion of charging revenue last year, roughly 1.5% of total revenue. By 2030, Bloomberg estimates that Tesla could make $7.4 billion per year, or around 6% of the global charging business.

The company wants to be valued as a growth company, so these two growth areas would seem desirable.

About charger utilization: There must be a lot of fixed cost to build a supercharger station. So with most of the EV expansion still ahead, it makes sense to build large stations rather than try to expand them later.

 

[RSpanner]

I'm pretty worried about this too and makes me question purchasing more tesla products, and makes me further question the products I've already bought.

But I was told to not worry about it, the team has been shifted to another department. Different focuses such as reliability and expanding current sites are priority. More of a money cutting thing because new sites cost more than expanding current ones.

We were seriously thinking of getting the new Model 3..Highland. Decided to just stay with our current Model 3.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

We were seriously thinking of getting the new Model 3..Highland. Decided to just stay with our current Model 3.

Same here. The decision to double down on Vision only and not introduce a radar unit like EVERY other OEM killed it for me. With radar activated i had near zero PB’s on TACC / AP but then Elmo decided to software delete my radar unit and since then I’m enjoying how limited the webcams are….

 

[HoppinHobbit]

Laughable wipers and scary phantom braking was the price I was willing to pay for access to the convenience of Tesla’s unique charging network.

If Tesla won’t have unique charging then I’ll get a car that can do rain like my 2009 Land Rover and cruise like my 2005 Saab.

 

[QtownTaxiGreg]

Here's a fun exercise for someone. Imagine current vehicle usage remains the same replace all the ICE cars with EV...

Take the entire US milage and assign a percentage to public charging vs home/workplace/hotel. X miles.

Multiply by an average watts per mile and divide by 0.85.

That's how many watts you need to pump through public chargers.

Let's assume 50% utility for the charger fleet between vacant off peak stalls and broken stalls.

Let's assume they all charge at 200kW. They don't at the moment but a few legacy ones may remain.

Calculate number of stalls required.

Btw you people have sucessfully corrupted me into referring to watts when I should be using kWh.

 

[ThomasD]

Maybe it was getting too expensive to keep expanding to new Supercharger Sites. Land, Permits Utility Hookups and Contractors cost a lot of Money. It was possibly costing Tesla more to install new sites than what they were bringing in on revenue. That could be why Tesla opened the Chargers to other Makes for more revenue. The Superchargers weren't supposed to be profit centers but you can't just break even and expect to expand the service unless you are taking Taxpayer Dollars from the Government.