Musk disbands Tesla EV charging team, leaving customers in the dark

[BrasSmonkey]

where is tacamateurs??????

DETROIT (Reuters) -Elon Musk's abrupt decision to lay off employees who ran Tesla's electric vehicle charging business blindsided automakers gearing up to equip new EVs for customers to use the Tesla Supercharger network, industry officials and analysts said on Tuesday.

For now, General Motors, Ford and other automakers which struck deals last year to give customers access to the network said they are not changing their plans.

Tesla's decision to open its network to rival EV manufacturers was hailed by U.S. President Joe Biden, and opened the door for Tesla to get federal subsidies to expand the reach of its North American Charging Standard (NACS) system.

Musk's decision to dismiss the head of the business, Rebecca Tinucci, and most or all of the staff that operated and maintained the system, according to two former employees and multiple postings on LinkedIn, left officials at automakers and Tesla suppliers uncertain about the future.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Musk subsequently said on X that the carmaker still plans to expand the Supercharger network, "just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations."

Andres Pinter, co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, a supplier to the network, said, "As contractors for the Supercharger network, my team woke up to a sharp kick in the pants this morning."

"Tesla has already been awarded money under the federal government's NEVI program," he said, referring to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program to provide funding to states to deploy EV charging networks. "There's no way Mr. Musk would walk away from effectively free money. It may be possible Mr. Musk will reconstitute the EV charger team in bigger, badder, more Muskian way."

GM and Ford, in separate statements, said they are not changing plans to equip their EVs with connectors that will allow drivers of Chevrolet, Cadillac or Ford brand EVs to recharge at Tesla stations.

"We have nothing new to announce regarding our plans," GM said. "We are continuing to monitor the situation regarding changes to the Supercharger team and the potential impacts with no further comments or updates at this time."

'NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE'

Some industry executives and analysts said Musk could have disbanded the existing Supercharger organization to build a leaner and less expensive team to run the operations.

However, Musk made clear in a call with analysts earlier this month that he is focused on opportunities in artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous robotaxis.

"In this layoff, nothing is off the table," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said. "Musk is trying to send a signal internally that the difficulty that Tesla is going through, they're going to have to make tough decisions. ... It shows there is serious cost focus."

Tesla last week reported lower first-quarter profits and its first quarterly revenue decline since 2021. Even after a surge over the past week, Tesla shares are down about 26% for the year.

In China, the company's second-biggest market to which Musk made a surprise weekend visit to discuss a potential roll-out of its advanced driver-assistance package, Tesla has more than 1,350 Supercharger stations, according to a list on its website.

With sales of Tesla's EVs falling and profit margins under increasing pressure, Musk could be cutting Supercharger network spending to conserve cash for other projects with more growth potential, analysts said.

"Tesla is looking to right size its (capital spending) and operating expenses over the next couple of years as the company is in a slower growth phase," Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said.

More traditional automakers might hang on to a business that promised steady revenue and near-continuous data exchanges with customers, analysts said. But Musk could take a Silicon Valley entrepreneur's view that charging is a legacy business that could be streamlined or even divested.

"My guess is that now that the industry has adopted the NACS standard, he views Supercharging less as a strategic moat and more as a cost center," said KC Boyce, a vice president at data analytics firm Escalent.

The Tesla Supercharger network could have significant value if Musk wanted to sell it, analysts said. Rival U.S. charging networks have struggled with reliability problems and do not have the scale or prime locations Tesla has locked in.

Seven large automakers, including Mercedes, GM, Stellantis, Honda, BMW and Hyundai-Kia last year formed a joint venture called Ionna to develop a fast-charging network to compete with the Tesla Supercharger network.

(Reporting by Joe White and Nora Eckert in Detroit and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco, Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles and Daniel Leussink in Beijing; Editing by Ben Klayman and Richard Chang)

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/musk ... 01433.html

[LuKenGas]

People have wised up about RV's they are not the buying them in numbers they were when the hype was hot.

[BrasSmonkey]

People have wised up about RV's they are not the buying them in numbers they were when the hype was hot.

they never built the small. a gated community first

[jag]

Corporations have more employees than they need, he is only getting rid of payroll that the company can survive without paying, not a nad business decision.

[antisocial]

He must6 have a plan wait and see what he has in store.

[BrasSmonkey]

He must6 have a plan wait and see what he has in store.

[NSWDave]

How will he run the charging network now

[BrasSmonkey]

How will he run the charging network now

like twitter??? he fucked that up.... the new myspace LOLzzz

[TheButcher]

EV sales are not what they were even going back just a year.

[tacnet]

EV sales are not what they were even going back just a year.

That's true but its only because several major countries have pushed back their carbon neutral commitment from 2030 to 2035. Its meant that instead of the mad rush to build charging networks all over the place, they now have a bit of breathing space

But its STILL going to happen. Its not like we are all going to suddenly abandon our reduced carbon commitments and go back to driving ICE cars

[TheButcher]

"The UK has over time emitted about 3% of the world total human caused CO2, with a current rate under 1%"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhous ... ed_Kingdom

Even if the UK goes to zero percent it is not going to make a ding in the overall world figure. But it is going to cost millions of people more in expense. Not to mention the inconvenience of hanging around charging stations to charge their electric vehicles. You give me the option of a free Roll Royce Spectre or any V8 Mustang I'll not hesitate to take the latter.

[tacnet]

"The UK has over time emitted about 3% of the world total human caused CO2, with a current rate under 1%"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhous ... ed_Kingdom

Even if the UK goes to zero percent it is not going to make a ding in the overall world figure. But it is going to cost millions of people more in expense. Not to mention the inconvenience of hanging around charging stations to charge their electric vehicles. You give me the option of a free Roll Royce Spectre or any V8 Mustang I'll not hesitate to take the latter.

Thats true but its not just the UK that is going zero. There's 194 states/countries that have signed up to the Paris climate agreement which covers over 98% of global greenhouse gass emmissions. The whole world is moving to reduce their carbon footprint and ICE cars are one of the main causes of carbon emmissions

I hear what you are saying, I would quite like a V8 Mustang too but its simply never going to happen. The world is set on this path now and we know that we simply cannot go back to our old ways of burning as much fossil fuel as we liked

[TheButcher]

"The UK has over time emitted about 3% of the world total human caused CO2, with a current rate under 1%"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhous ... ed_Kingdom

Even if the UK goes to zero percent it is not going to make a ding in the overall world figure. But it is going to cost millions of people more in expense. Not to mention the inconvenience of hanging around charging stations to charge their electric vehicles. You give me the option of a free Roll Royce Spectre or any V8 Mustang I'll not hesitate to take the latter.

Thats true but its not just the UK that is going zero. There's 194 states/countries that have signed up to the Paris climate agreement which covers over 98% of global greenhouse gass emmissions. The whole world is moving to reduce their carbon footprint and ICE cars are one of the main causes of carbon emmissions

I hear what you are saying, I would quite like a V8 Mustang too but its simply never going to happen. The world is set on this path now and we know that we simply cannot go back to our old ways of burning as much fossil fuel as we liked

The problem is the developing countries are not so interested in carbon neutral as getting their population jobs and out of poverty. The carbon neutral idea started with already developed countries.


If people do not buy EV's then the 2030 that went to 2035 might very easily go back a few more times.

[tacnet]

Believe it or not, anybody who owns an EV will tell you that its much more convenient (and cheaper) than owning an ICE car

This best explains the reasons why "Electric car range and 5 reasons why your range anxiety is unwarranted "

[BrasSmonkey]

retards think ev is a quick fix! there is no system for ev!!! where is the power coming from???? you have a ev craze in a large city and watch the blackouts! what a fucking joke! it's like having the trains built before the tracks.... and yup butch the money is going into illegal aliens, wars, and shithead government thieves! nobody wants toxic ev shit!!!