Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, fired the leader of the Supercharger department and her entire team last month. This decision caused confusion and raised many questions because Tesla had recently convinced other carmakers to use its chargers.
According to Reuters, Musk fired the head of charging, Rebecca Tinucci, and her team because she disagreed with him about laying off more staff. Musk was angry, so he fired Tinucci and her team. Since then, he has been trying to fix the situation by talking about expanding the charging network and rehiring some of the fired workers.
Tinucci had started reporting to Musk after another leader left Tesla. The charging department had not been directly managed by Musk before. The layoffs in the charging team are part of a larger pattern of confusion and changes happening at Tesla. The company is shifting its focus from electric cars to self-driving cars, which is a more competitive and risky business.
Tesla’s car sales dropped for the first time since 2020, and the company canceled plans for a new affordable car. Many executives have left Tesla, and there have been layoffs. Tesla also canceled plans for new Supercharger sites in New York and asked suppliers to delay starting new construction projects. The energy team at Tesla, which deals with solar systems and batteries, took over the charging projects. However, they did not receive proper training for their new responsibilities.
Musk said Tesla would still expand the Supercharger network but at a slower pace. He claimed the company would spend over $500 million on new chargers this year. However, this is much less than what Tesla had planned to spend. The layoffs affect not only Tesla employees but also contractors who hired workers based on agreements with Tesla. These contractors are now facing financial losses and angry employees.
