Electric vehicle giant Tesla pulled back some of its Supercharger projects following the dismissal of the whole team, including Senior Director Rebecca Tinucci.
Tesla fires Supercharger team
As EV-a2z recently reported, Tesla dismissed two senior executives amid the ongoing layoff effort to cut costs.
One of them is Tesla Supercharger Senior Director Rebeccaa Tinucci. In a surprising move, the American electric automaker also fired the whole Supercharging team.
The other affected Tesla executive is New Vehicles Program Head Daniel Ho. Like the Supercharging team, Tesla also dismissed the workers under his supervision.
“Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.”
CEO Elon Musk wrote in an email to senior managers
Direct impact on planned projects
The sudden dismissal of the Tesla Supercharging team has now started to unveil direct impacts on future projects, Electrek reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Tesla reportedly canceled four leases for its planned new Supercharger stations in the following areas in New York:
- one in Maspeth
- South Bronx
- two in Queens
- one in Gateway Center, Brooklyn
These planned stations are reportedly the company’s response to address the overcrowding issue in Supercharger sites in the city. The issue occurred early this year when Teslas used by Uber drivers swamped the Supercharger stations due to the incentives from the city government for electrifying the rideshare fleet.
Tesla announced plans to install 100 new Superchargers in the city by the end of 2024 to alleviate owners’ concerns. It cooperated with Uber to collect data to strategically deploy the new stations at optimal areas.
NACS partners worry
According to Axios, Tesla’s dismissal of the Supercharging team confused some of its NACS partners.
“It was news to us when we read it online. We’re trying to gain more insight.”
Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin
General Motors also expressed worry that the layoff could directly affect customer experience, as per a person knowledgeable about the matter.
Meanwhile, Ford reaffirmed that its plans remain unchanged despite the recent layoff of Tesla’s Supercharger team.
“Ford’s plans for our customers do not change.”
Ford spokesperson Marty Günsberg
Tesla’s recent move is very shocking, considering that it had just succeeded in making NACS the new standard in the region. All OEMs in North America are already committed to adopting NACS and using the Supercharger network. Therefore, it is critical for Tesla to expand its network further to accommodate more EVs.
Tesla’s Supercharger deployment reached a record high in Q1 2024. In total, the company now has 57,579 Superchargers at 6,249 locations across the world.
