The billionaire mentioned in an e-mail to employees on April 29 that he was dissolving all the staff behind Tesla’s charging infrastructure, per The Info. Musk has since walked again this determination and rehired a number of the employees, per Bloomberg.
Musk did a one-on-one assembly with Supercharger chief Rebecca Tinucci the day earlier than the e-mail went out, Reuters reported, citing 4 people aware of the matter.
In keeping with the outlet, Musk axed Tinucci’s whole staff as a result of she did not wish to lay off extra workers. Tinucci had already laid off round 15% to twenty% of her staff earlier than assembly Musk, per Reuters.
Representatives for Tesla, Musk, and Tinucci did not reply to Reuters’ request for remark.
Final month, Musk introduced Tesla’s first spherical of mass layoffs for the 12 months, telling employees in a memo that he was shedding greater than 10% of workers. Tesla employed greater than 140,000 employees earlier than the layoffs.
The widespread job cuts got here as the corporate grapples with poor gross sales and elevated competitors from Chinese language automakers like BYD.
At one level, Musk was contemplating culling Tesla’s workforce by 20% to match the newest discount in quarterly automobile deliveries, Bloomberg reported on April 21, citing an individual aware of the matter.
When Musk introduced the Supercharger staff’s dissolution final month, he added that he would begin asking Tesla executives who retain “greater than three individuals who do not clearly move the superb, obligatory and reliable take a look at” to resign, per an e-mail obtained by The Info.
“Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we have to be completely arduous core about headcount and value discount,” Musk wrote.
However that “arduous core” transfer resulted in some fast issues.
Main automakers who adopted Tesla’s charging tech, reminiscent of Common Motors, Ford, and Mercedes Benz, had been left hanging with the sudden elimination of the Supercharger division.
Tesla’s traders and companions additionally criticized the sudden transfer, upset with the corporate’s radio silence following the Supercharger staff’s dismissal.
“There isn’t any one remaining from the staff that we labored with. By way of formal communication from Tesla, we’ve not acquired something,” Aaron Luque, the CEO EnviroSpark, which installs Tesla chargers, informed BI.
The following backlash might need been essential in altering Musk’s thoughts. The Tesla chief moved rapidly to assuage considerations, and warranted traders that Tesla’s Supercharger community is not going wherever.
“Tesla nonetheless plans to develop the Supercharger community, simply at a slower tempo for brand spanking new places and extra concentrate on 100% uptime and enlargement of present places,” he wrote in an X submit on April 30.
Musk’s about-turn might even have been influenced by Tesla’s commitments to the US authorities.
The corporate received virtually 13% of all EV charging awards from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation, Politico reported in February, citing information it reviewed. A slowdown within the rollout of Tesla’s charging infrastructure would thus be a setback for Biden’s clean-energy agenda.
“Simply to reiterate: Tesla will spend properly over $500M increasing our Supercharger community to create 1000’s of NEW chargers this 12 months,” Musk mentioned in an X submit on Friday.
Representatives for Tesla did not instantly reply to a request for remark from BI despatched exterior common enterprise hours.
