Tesla Fired Its Supercharger Division – A Shocking Yet Brilliant Move
Elon Musk fired his Tesla’s Supercharger division, in the name of “needing to be hardcore in cutting costs”. However, there is an obvious undercurrent.
The world woke up to a shocking move by Elon Musk who is now struggling with declining sales in his electric vehicles (EV) plus reputational damages from his self-driving vehicles that crashed. He has reportedly axed the whole department that developed his biggest cash cow – Tesla’s Superchargers.
A Shocking Move
Tesla has over 50,000 Superchargers worldwide, making the brand the the world’s largest fast-charging network for electric vehicles. Rival automakers including Mercedes, Honda, BMW and Hyundai-Kia set-up a joint venture to build a rival fast-charging network.
Tesla’s network of chargers is widely seen as industry leading, and recently it cut deals with several rival car-makers in North America to adopt its “NACS” charging standard so that their vehicles could use the network. William Jameson, strategic charging programs lead at Tesla, posted on X that Mr Musk had “let our entire charging org go”. “What a wild ride it has been”, Jameson wrote. Also writing on X, Musk said the company still planned to grow the Supercharger network, “just at a slower pace for new locations.”
Yet Brilliant For Business
Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of electric vehicle news website Electrek, posted on social media he was “extremely perplexed” by the move.
“If one thing was a clear success at Tesla, it’s the Supercharger network. Even from a talent perspective. No other charging team in the world has been able to do what Tesla did,” he wrote.
The quality and reach of the Supercharger network has long been a huge advantage for Tesla, James Attwood, acting magazine editor of Autocar, told the BBC. It was “a key selling point for potential buyers” he added.
“But with regulators in both Europe and the US pushing the firm to open the Supercharger network to owners of other electric vehicles, it will offer less of an advantage in the future.”
For Musk, who has established the standards for EV charging, such a cut is probably minute to him — akin to a small sacrifice compared to more losses if Tesla continues to lose its charm to other affordable rivals. The biggest blow would be Tesla being compelled to open up his charging network to other EVs, and why would he? It was his funding that materialised this network which reached “industry-leading” status.
It is as good as Musk doing all the work and others enjoying the fruits without dropping a dime. Even if the rival supercharging network is rolled out, it would likely be nowhere near Tesla’s. Essentially, Musk is daring the others to try and match what he did, and snidely taunting if they could even do it like he could. It would be an interesting chapter in EV history.
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