After hearing that Tesla would be letting go of more workers, including the team behind their Supercharging stations, CEO Elon Musk used social media to tell owners and investors that the charging stations will still be around.
Musk wrote on X, “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.”
But, despite what Musk said, Tesla has started canceling leases for upcoming stations in New York, according to a report from EV news outlet Electrek. Right now, Tesla has 57,579 Superchargers at 6,249 locations around the world.
Even Tesla’s biggest fans weren’t happy about the news. People commented on Musk’s post, calling his announcement “kinda lame” and asking him to change his mind. They said having a lot of charging stations is really important for getting more people to use electric cars everywhere.
Troy Meekhof, who runs a site about electric cars, said, “This is a goddamn disaster. Superchargers need to be Tesla’s second top growing sector outside of FSD.” He added that not having enough charging options in some places, like parts of Michigan, makes it hard for him to use his Tesla cars.
Meekhof said he usually trusts Musk’s plans, but he’s really worried about this one because he thinks the Supercharger network is one of Tesla’s best things. He said, “destroying the division responsible for what I believe is their single greatest achievement in North America is simultaneously shocking and bewildering.”
The latest people to lose their jobs at Tesla include Rebecca Tinucci, who worked on the Supercharger team, and Daniel Ho, who was in charge of new products. The Supercharging team, which had about 500 workers, will be gone after the layoffs.
These job cuts come after Tesla’s earnings report wasn’t as good as expected. In the first quarter of this year, Tesla made less money than it did last year, and its cash flow went down a lot.
