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?

 

[MP3Mike]

Hey look at that, work still being done on adding OEMs to the Superchargers:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788272404189372469

 

[gearchruncher]

Hey look at that, work still being done on adding OEMs to the Superchargers:

GM engineers at a Supercharger? How does this prove or disprove that Tesla is working on SC's more? This requires zero Tesla interaction in the last few weeks.

 

[MP3Mike]

GM engineers at a Supercharger? How does this prove or disprove that Tesla is working on SC's more? This requires zero Tesla interaction in the last few weeks.

Really? You think GM has the controls to adjust the Supercharger authorizations in the Tesla systems?

 

[EfficientWatts]

Really? You think GM has the controls to adjust the Supercharger authorizations in the Tesla systems?

Your point still doesn't prove anything about the state of the supercharging team especially as it relates to OEMs. At least GM still seems to be moving forward and not haphazardly dropping their entire charging team.

At the very least this may show that Tesla may still be picking up the phone, or they could just be doing general testing that does not require any Tesla interaction. We don't know.

I hate this post as people try to write absolute narratives from anecdotal evidences and examples. And it goes both ways, both pro and anti-Tesla.

 

[gearchruncher]

Really? You think GM has the controls to adjust the Supercharger authorizations in the Tesla systems?

Really? You think the only possibility here is that these cars had to be authorized within the last week?

For a team working on NACS rollout for the last year, they didn't have a way for engineering vehicles to test charging that doesn't need constant maintenance by Tesla? Or that there isn't a way for GM to actually add VINs to the system like they'll have to do as they roll out to the public? Of that these cars are 6 months old and have been in the Tesla system since then and thus would continue to work?

So many feasible paths that don't prove that Tesla is actively supporting NACS testing. But it also doesn't prove they aren't.

 

[threeputts]

So you could say that getting all your permits and ordering supplies to build is breaking ground even if you haven't literally touched the ground yet.

In a time of complete chaos, I don't think the fact that a few supercharger cabinets were dropped off this week tells us anything about if that is per policy, or if that is indicative of how all buildouts are going, or how maintenance will go in the future.

Agree. There will be a lag but what you don't see since the announcement are newly permitted sites (a couple of "plan" entries are there). I suspect we will see a significant slowdown in all types of entries over the next few months.

 

[KJD]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788350780640309673

 

[EatsShoots]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788350780640309673

That's awesome.

 

[gearchruncher]

I'm aware this screenshot from Reddit is either a complete misinterpretation by the service center, or is fake, but it tells you a lot that in May 2024, we're really not sure, and it could actually be a thing Elon did, especially after 2019's "Going forward, all expenses of any kind anywhere in the world, including parts, salary, travel expenses, rent, literally every payment that leaves our bank account must be reviewed, confirmed as critical and the top of every page of outgoing payments signed by our CFO. I will personally review and sign every 10th page.":

 

[PineNut]

The head of product launches is also leaving, and we learn the coffee isn't any good either...

Source

 

[chinney]

The head of product launches is also leaving, and we learn the coffee isn't any good either...

Source

I am glad that at least one of the departing senior employees has had the courage to speak frankly – even if not in detail – about conditions within the company right now.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I am glad that at least one of the departing senior employees has had the courage to speak frankly – even if not in detail – about conditions within the company right now.

they'll have tremendous issues hiring talent going fwd after:

- entire teams getting canned via a 1am email
- massive "hardcore" layoffs while Elon also changes incorporation to Texas from Delaware because he wants his $50b+ pay day
- senior leadership leaving
- summer interns being told "go find something else" - weeks before internship starts
- the outspoken CEO on all things not even remotely related to Tesla...

 

[zroger73]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788632840864702517

 

[texas_star_TM3]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1788632840864702517

yeah .... not trusting Big Oil with having the best interest in mind for electric vehicles... but maybe I'm wrong. on the other hand it's good to see other large corporations looking into charging while Tesla seems to be stepping back...

 

[gearchruncher]

$1B sounds great until you realize:
It's over 6 years, so that's $150M a year.
Tesla laid of 500 people who had a salary over $150M a year
Tesla is spending $10B PER YEAR on AI
Elon wants 56X that as his pay.
$150M is 0.2% of BP's profit per year.

And we Think Tesla was inefficient? 3000 charging points for $1B is $333K per charging point.
Tesla opened 3,000 charge points since the beginning of THIS YEAR.

This is a drop in the bucket compared to what Tesla was doing.

 

[mborkow]

yeah .... not trusting Big Oil with having the best interest in mind for electric vehicles... but maybe I'm wrong. on the other hand it's good to see other large corporations looking into charging while Tesla seems to be stepping back...

looks like they are hedging their bets…not unlike the Saudi’s backing Lucid

 

[wws]

Friend of mine does a somewhat weekly podcast on various solar/energy topics. Here is his take on the Supercharger staff cuts:

Elon Musk Is Right About The SuperCharger Business

Elon Musk Is Right About The SuperCharger BusinessI read an avalanche of media criticism when Elon Musk fired his entire SuperCharger team a few weeks ago. In spite of all the whining, it was a good business decision for Tesla.Here’s why: expanding and running a fast charging network is a lousy...

www.energyshow.biz

 

[flixden]

Tesla laid of 500 people who had a salary over $150M a year

You think those 500 people on Tesla's SC team made on AVERAGE $300,000+ each per year?
If that's the case, then Tesla will not have big problems finding good people going forward.
But I doubt that's really the case.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

looks like they are hedging their bets…not unlike the Saudi’s backing Lucid

or to make charging as much of a hassle and $$ as possible so the consumer says... "nah. i'll stick with gasoline...". (devil's advocate)
kinda like Exxon buying up green energy patents and then letting them sit and not doing anything with them

 

[gearchruncher]

You think those 500 people on Tesla's SC team made on AVERAGE $300,000+ each per year?

A company easily spends 30%+ on taxes, benefits, stock options, etc for employees. The cost to a company is not just what the employee is paid directly.
So this puts it closer to $200K "salary" on average. For an engineering team in a tech company (not a car company, right?) $200K is pretty average today, including all the directors and managers.

Let's say I'm off the average pay is $150K. That's $225K a year spend by Tesla, That's still $113M a year, just on salaries for the people locating and designing new supercharger sites. Not including continuing maintenance, the land leases themselves, the construction, or the actual charger hardware. This BP spending $150M a year is way lower than Tesla was spending by a huge margin, maybe 8X. Which is good because Tesla was also delivering 15K points a year while BP thinks they can do 500, meaning Tesla was way more efficient.