What’s Going on With Tesla Superchargers?

In this clip, Marques, Andrew, and David talk about the layoffs at Tesla.

Shop the merch:

Twitters/X's:

Threads:

Instagram:

Shop the merch:

Join the Discord:

Music by 20syl:

Waveform is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

[TheCreiveType]

I manage a shopping center on the west coast, we had been approached by Tesla's charging division and had JUST begun the process of bringing in Tesla Chargers maybe a month ago. Hadn't heard an update in awhile so we checked in last week only to find out this news and the whole project was dead. RIP.

[veselekov]

Tech YouTubers love to talk about right to repair. With the exception of Tesla.

[joelcohen]

This could really slow EV sales among majority-adopters. It just reinforces the feeling that this isn't really ready for prime-time.

[lirfrank]

I get companies gamble, it feels like Tesla is making some pretty dumb ones. It's also a bad message for the employees that do stay on the company.

[stacybehrens]

Feels like classic Elon seagull management. Fly in, make a lot of noise, crap all over everything, then leave.

[Animeabe]

The fact of firing everyone in that division was out of spite. Elon sent them all a note to reduce their dept, she didn't, so he fired everyone to prove a point imo.

[raxcentalruthenta]

How are they gonna focus on uptime and expanding existing locations if there's no more staff for that division?

[robertlee]

It's capital preservation. However, the challenge of replacing essential staff will prove arduous. Once employees recognize they're not valued as integral parts of the company but rather as easily replaceable or disposable, trust in management and loyalty will decline irreversibly. While C-suite might believe they have and know the big picture, it's the worker bees who are fundamentally responsible for a company's success. There is nothing worse than having inept or egotistical managers running a company.

[vissitorsteve]

At a time when EV sales are slowing down and lots are filling with Teslas, including the Cyber Truck, to stop growing the charging station network seems to me to be not only counter intuitive, but destructive to EV's on the whole. From what I've seen, the major problem in selling EV's is the anxiety of not being able to reach the next charger in time. This is about Elon's money and stock prices rather than Elon's decades 'dedication' to moving away from ICE...

[renaissanceman]

anyone that thinks a 3rd party will pick up the slack has no clue how a gas station actually make money.

[jamesbell]

This is what happens when you put that much faith in a guy who has done nothing but show disdain for employees his entire life.

[calvinweese]

I could never imagine working for a company that Elon Musk owns. All he has shown is how everyone at his companies are expendable. Why would anyone with a family, career or goals ever want to work for him?

[wuhala]

Marques is too much of a STAN for Tesla and Elon, that he will not see the fall coming.

[lukeknowles]

2:56 Claiming the amount of cars using Tesla chargers will be 5X is wildly overstating the ratios. Tesla sold 55% of the total EVs sold in the US in 2023. They had TWO models that sold more than 220, 000 vehicles each, and no other maker had a model that even sold 65, 000.
So if every other car buyer began using the Tesla network, it would not even double the load, nowhere near 5X.

[natecourtney]

5 supercharger stations in Houston have had most of their charging cable cut. 33 stations at the Taylor st. Supercharger station, about 20 cords were cut.

[ageng]

“I felt a great disturbance …, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”

[fredfromboston]

Current Tesla owner here, , , there are lots of things that I like about the car, , , but there are many things that I don’t like about the company. Anytime one person can layoff indiscriminately or lower prices at will or a total lack of customer support and not care about it, , , is in my opinion going to loose consumer confidence in their product. I have several friends that own Tesla(s) however 6 out of the 7 of us have all said that we would not consider another Tesla in the future but are seriously looking at some of the legacy car companies EV’s eg Audi, Volkswagen and even KIA/Hyundai etc. Time will tell how Tesla stock does in the immediate future.

[borabora]

yes, more stalls, but many of those locations will require electrical feeder upgrades by the utility companies. time & money

[samuelzackrisson]

their charging ecosystem is the biggest advantage tesla has and they do this?! crazy if you ask me

[duncanwallace]

Firing 500 people for building the best charging network seems like a Twitter v2. There will be an enormous amount of money to be made in charging EVs in the future, probably more than vehicle manufacturing, so unless Tesla is in serious financial trouble and can't afford to build more, it seems like he's just killed a golden goose.