Elon Musk decided to cut back on Tesla’s team that works on electric vehicle (EV) charging. This is causing problems for making new fast-charging stations. It might also slow down President Joe Biden’s plan to make U.S. highways have more EVs.
Last year, President Biden said the government would spend $5 billion over five years to make 500,000 EV chargers. Tesla, the company that makes a lot of EVs and has many fast chargers called Superchargers, was a big part of this plan.
But now, Tesla’s sudden decision to lay off some people who work on EV charging has caused trouble. Companies that make charging stations are getting calls from places that wanted Tesla to put chargers in, but now need someone else to do it.
These companies are also getting ready for Tesla to back out of the government program. This could make the rollout of the chargers even slower.
A person from a company that makes chargers said, “It’s going to delay the rollout. There’s no question about it.” If Tesla doesn’t do it, then the states have to start over with finding someone else to put chargers in.
Some states have already started getting calls from places that wanted Tesla to put chargers in, saying they need someone else now.
Tesla won contracts to put chargers in at 69 of the 501 places that are getting government money for chargers. But now, they might not do it.
Since the layoffs, Elon Musk said Tesla will still make more Superchargers, but not as quickly. He didn’t say much about what this means.
The government office in charge of the program said they don’t think Tesla’s decision will affect the chargers funded by the government.
Other states are watching closely to see what happens. Some companies are even hiring the people who lost their jobs at Tesla to work on chargers for them instead.
