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The Tesla Supercharger team, responsible for managing and developing electric vehicle charging stations throughout the United States, has been fired.
Tesla’s strategic charging programs lead William Jameson broke the news via X. His post said “Confirmed – @Tesla @elonmusk has let our entire charging org go. What this means for the charging network, NACS, and all the exciting work we were doing across the industry, I don’t yet know. What a wild ride it has been.”
Tesla developed the North American Charging Standard (NACS), which has been opened to other manufacturers over the past few years. The national provision of the charging stations was seen as a success, especially given the deals made with rival companies to use these locations.
Tesla Supercharger team axed
The news of offloading staff comes after a turbulent few weeks for Tesla and Elon Musk. Due to pressure from rival car manufacturers, the car company slashed many of its marquee and flagship models globally and a national product recall was issued for Cybertrucks as an accelerator issue risked lives.
Musk said in a memo, first reported by The Information, that the electric car maker had to be “absolutely hardcore” in cutting costs.
Drew Baglino, chief of Tesla’s Powertrain, and Rohan Patel, Head of Business Development, handed in their resignations after the news that a 10% reduction in headcount was needed.
Musk continued his statement on slimming down Tesla “As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.”
This next growth phase cycle would not include 14,000 staff and Rebecca Tinucci, the lead of the Supercharger team, and Daniel Ho, the Head of New Products.
Musk posted to X after the layoffs saying “Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations.”
This slower pace may be due to the slower earnings and growth the company reported earlier this month. These decisions to cut the cost of electric vehicles, high-profile staff, and a tenth of the company headcount can, in part, be attributed to a less-than-favorable fourth-quarter earnings report.
Image: Tesla.
