yeah agreed, supercharging network has been damn near flawless for me as well. But agreed on talent will have to approach Tesla with caution because of how they are handling their employees and teams so erratically.
With the caveat that I have absolutely no experience running a corporation I don’t think Elon‘s going to have any trouble attracting Young talent that shares his balls to the walls work ethic… I don’t think a lot of turnover at a company is a bad thing- it’s probably less problematic than the bloat so easily occurs as companies get bigger
I'm starting to think this might be one reason the V4 supercharger rollout hasn't been done yet. Yes, we have some cabinets and stalls, but they're still running V3 hardware so they're not really faster than the existing V3 superchargers. This is also bad optics for Tesla/Elon Musk as it makes the company a less desirable place for those with talent to want to work there. Those who weren't let go and are responsible for upkeep on the superchargers will either be thinking about jumping ship themselves as there's now more work they're expected to do and they may be thinking they're the next one to be laid off. Or they have less support to troubleshoot problematic issues they may run into when repairing a broken supercharger. On the customer/owner side of things it could mean superchargers are down/broken more, and will take longer to get back up. It certainly means less supercharger sites will be opening up in the short term, and some areas still don't have sufficient coverage to handle the incoming demand from both Tesla vehicles and non-Tesla EV's adopting NACS.
You have no idea why Elon canned the charger team. There may be a very good reason. If I had to guess, I think there are two things at play: 1) Wait times on utilities running new lines was holding up new site deployments. Since Tesla gets govt money per charger, expanding existing sites means more and faster money. 2) I think Elon has seen how the OEMs are retreating to Hybrids. This means that there won't be the load on the Tesla network that they anticipated nor will they be getting in as much money from OEM EVs that they had thought. This may be the prime reason for the drastic downsizing.
How does this tarnish the brand? When an executive is aggressively taking action to improve the company how does anybody see that as anything but a good thing?
@@bspencersf Indeed it seems as though a lot of citizens think that a company exists just to give them a job and health insurance. Very entitled way of thinking.
@@nickmcconnell1291 right… There are plenty of companies who are not trying to innovate and push forward , that’s the job for many people. This move along with all the other information we have about Elon is readily available for people to assess before they accept the job at Tesla. I suspect high-performing people would want to take the exciting ride of working for Tesla for a while and then maybe choose to move to a less exciting more stable job later. I sincerely doubt being let go from Tesla is a black mark on your résumé outweighing the Gold star it will give you for working at such a innovative company
If Elon wanted a way to convince Tesla Owners and Investors (not a small number) to not support the reinstatement of his $$$ pay packet... He just found it. Time for the well paid Board to step up and reign in the CEO.
@@fractalelf7760 restructuring doesn't increase growth of Tesla isn't a growth company then it's valuation falls drastically. This barely saves Tesla 1 billion dollars . Yet he wants a 50 billion pay package . Tesla would be better off expanding their charging network and selling more cars if Tesla is going good and not paying the pay package
Rumor has it that these layoffs only effected Ver3 Supercharger production and expansion. That may indicate that the Ver4 cabinets are finally in production and there’s no longer any use for Ver3 hardware production.
The SC team was not doing an excellent job. Some SCs were too crowded, others were always empty. Some SCs were too slow, cables are too short for non-Teslas, most SCs are not designed for hauling, and so on. Elon will hire new people with new ideas to make the network great again, before it can be further expanded.
It will be interesting to see how all this affects Tesla vehicle sales in the coming months. Also curious to see if the manner of layoffs will affect Tesla's ability to attract talent and employee loyalty to the company.
agreed. sales has already been all over the place with the price adjustments ruining resell value but yeah someone wanting to join Tesla before has to now consider could their job be cut randomly and abruptly.
Up until now we did not even know that there were executives managing the superchargers. do we Even need somebody to manage the superchargers I think Elon Musk has automated this process and saved millions of dollars
Hmmm.... fired Supercharger team to cut cost's... that says it all. Everyone that has been choosing a Tesla on the basis of "free charging" by buying a Tesla and using the Supercharger network because it's free have no one to blame but themselves. Someone is paying for the installation of these facilities and the electricity they use, and the support staff, engineers, and service technicians. Now this little marketing scam is coming to an end and the idiots that thought "free charging" was going to last forever are going to have to start paying for the service. As far as firing the other "talent", in the corporate world it's because they were underperforming. And that's also not a suprise. Henry Ford thought the Model T was the perfect automobile for 20 years and almost bankrupted Ford Motor Company before his wife and son convinced him to make something other than the Model T. Take a look at any Tesla S, X, 3, or Y and they look the same today as the day they were first brought to market. Musk needs to take a lesson from Henry Ford on not producing th same product virtually unchanged for year after year.
Now that it's the standard other companies will build out 3rd party charging stations for him. He has the government and a handful of other companies wanting to expand NACS. He did the ground work. I still think every city should have way more tesla stations. But as companies start to install their own "tesla chargers" (others are able to buy them now). It doesn't require tesla themselves to be the only ones building out a charging network
Jalopnik just reported that he did it as a revenge tantrum after the team leader woman would only fire 20% or so. Now, he's stuck hiring some of them back.
Since his Supercharger team leader wouldn't choose which employees to fire, Elon decides to fire them all... Is this what we call the Sophie's Choice leadership model?
Elon made a strategic pivot. A *massive* pivot. It was resisted. Elon fired the resistors and cut the workforce to make room for new staff focused on the new strategic direction. So what is this new direction? Tesla ran into two factors that prompted Elon to pivot. One was soft demand. The other was Elon's assessment of FSD's progress. It's time. Soft demand means less than full utilization of existing production lines. It no longer made sense to Elon to add new lines. The challenge now is to get existing lines closer to max utilization. *Then* add new lines. Other automakers have solved this exact problem many, many times: produce more model variants on existing lines. That's what Elon decided to do as part of his pivot. The current lines are not set up for the unboxed assembly method. So that got postponed. What they need now is *constrained innovation.* Better models, more flexibility in line configuration, quick model change outs for current production lines. This is a big change in strategic direction, but it's not the biggest change in direction. Robotaxies is bigger. Elon decided to flip the switch and get robotaxies to market starting now with an all-hands-on-deck effort. Not everyone was on board. There were people telling him 'you can't do that.' Especially in the Supercharger team, I believe. Elon knew that existing charger infrastructure is brilliant for dumb cars operated by drivers. It's not what Tesla needs for its robotaxi push. He needs to deploy induction chargers, fast. I suspect his Supercharger team resisted. And some of his executives were too committed to the old strategy. They told him 'you can't do that.' Elon will not tolerate being told 'no.' it's his strategy, or leave. Can he do all of that? Investors better hope he can. It's a 'bet the company' moment. Again. The existing Supercharger network is in pretty good shape. The team he just fired did a fantastic job. They can coast on that network for a while. But it's not good at all for robotaxies. Tesla needs induction chargers, and fast. It's a whole new product line. Tesla also has to build out the FSD software in areas they ignored to work on core functionality. Now they need UI, scheduling, solutions for police interactions, shift to a 'never disengage' decision matrix. They need to solve billing, payments, tax records, all sorts of stuff. And fast. And Elon has begun to tackle the political side. Opposition to Tesla's robotaxies will be robust and deep-pocketed. We got a sense of his strategy this past week: he's leveraging China. Autocracies can go fast on decisions if they want to. Robotaxies will come to China first, giving the CCP bragging rights. They love that. He got the CCP to approve FSD deployment. Is working on the data training problem. Linked up with a domestic map company. Tesla and the CCP will go blisteringly fast. And that will put enormous pressure on Biden and Congress. *Enormous.* There's a lot to do. Innovations. Inventions. New stuff to create and manufacture. New software. Political wrangling. All at breakneck speed. It could go badly. Not everyone at Tesla was on board with this sudden strategic pivot. Hence the firings - and investor uncertainty. Tesla stock will be volatile. *Really* volatile. Might be more downs than up. Short-sellers are not finished with Tesla. Elon bet the company again. I feel queasy about this strategic pivot. A lot could go wrong. But I never bet against Elon.
I'd like to see Musk be the future of EVs, position himself as being the only one to drive the concept forward, making it have to rely on him, and then he shuts it all down and shits on the entire industry LOL. On a serious note, I like that the option of owning an EV exists, I'm not into it, and I'm definitely not into politicians forcing these vehicles onto us
Here’s what I think is about to happen (re Tesla Superchargers): Remember “way back” when someone said Superchargers would never be a “for profit” business? Well, that chick and the flock it’s evolved into - I think - had come home to roost and “there’s no room” in today’s Tesla Inn for that kinda business model. So, what I think they’re doing - in the now typical Musk way - is to unceremoniously kick that flock out of the Tesla nest (lock, stock and and employees) and let them fend for themselves. Tesla benefits (profits) from the “sale” of its “Supercharging” investment while significantly increasing its long term profitability - and, NACS (formerly called Tesla Superchargers but now legitimately recognized as North America Charging Standard) benefits (profits) from Tesla’s prior overall investment, adoption of NACS by major EV manufacturers and a workforce that hits the ground running … How’s that for wishful thinking?
I thought build back better had billions of dollars for an EV network? Where did all this money go? Is it possible that Tesla realizes that the cost of super chargers is too high?
Head of Investor Relations and Head of HR left. In a few days Tesla has gone from a market leader to a market follower. Furthermore, if Tesla wanted to expand to South America there could be no Supercharger network to go with it. Looks like an emotional decision not a thoughtful one.
Tesla has enough new charging sites. What they don't have is enough chargers at many of their sites to hold the load they will be incurring with other OEM EV car makers having access. Also, Elon has just been to China. I think he saw there that China will be entering a large economic downturn. I think Elon expects that car sales there, in general, will plummet. He also expects this contagion to spread just like the one in the US did. Elon is battoning down the hatches. He asked all his line of business heads to cut headcount. I suspect that the head of charging didn't do that or argued against it. Elon said "fine", and since he did not have info on who in that dept were top players, he cut the whole thing. I'm sure that the team that installs and maintenances the existing chargers is intact. He probably now is rehiring or shifting personnel as needed to cover the goals for charging that he wants to achieve. Bigger sites but not as many new ones. There's are two many as six or eight charger sites that are having issues with load.... especially in CA.
Tesla already has the best Supercharger locations. BP and others that want to be in the gas station business can pay for additional stations. Tesla can get rev share from selling key NACS components. v4 chargers aren’t working as expected so fresh blood is needed to change the team’s mentality.
What is click bait title. Of course superchargers aren’t going away. Elon Musk has already addressed this and states that the Priority now is going to be on expanding existing facilities rather than creating new ones, even though new ones will still be created, just at a slower pace. Elon has always been about getting the most from the least in every business he has ever run, and this is no different. Additionally, what Elon did not say is that it is very likely for others to foot the bill to install superchargers so that it is not a financial burden for Tesla, which is ultimately the way to go. This story is a whole lot of nothing about nothing.
Simple answer: Tesla is seeing the enormous growth and attention of battery swapping in China and Europe as it has so many benefits (fast, no battery degradation, etc) NIO has already an enormous swapping infrastructure there. My guess is that Tesla wants to build a solid battery swapping infrastructure in the US before NIO enters te US.
Slowing down Supercharger growth is a huge mistake on Elon's part. Just like with FSD, things are starting to go backwards at Tesla. Supercharger stations need to quadruple quickly with all the other EV's and Tesla's on the roads. NACS is now the "standard" charging connection, so with that you don't slow down the buildup of new stations. And Tesla still doesn't have a PR department. What the heck is Elon thinking?! This is all very disappointing. Elon please move away from X and get back to focusing on Tesla. I've been waiting 3 years for my Tesla stock to do something and it hasn't. If it ever gets back to $1,000 a share I will sell it all and never buy it again. And it's because Elon can't stop tweeting crazy stuff, which effects the share price. I think people in positions of influence need to stay off social media behaving like children.
So many people just can’t handle the Elon roller coaster. For me, I’m just gonna hang on and enjoy the ride with my mouth hanging open screaming with pure amazement. It’s worth it to watch even if he fails… But it’s gonna piss me off if he fails because jealousy and envy from boring people… you don’t like his style fine don’t buy the car don’t invest in the stock, but then please have the grace to not send negative energy towards those of us that are enjoying ourselves with this amazing product and admiring his amazing achievements
Elon or the board needs to answer how this decision was made and who had input to it and notice of it. If, as it seems extremely likely, this was Elon lashing out in a fit of pique at the Supercharger head resisting his firing edict this is not a man that should be leading a critically important company. For all we know his Ketamine (ab)use, that he freely admits to taking to control his mood, might even be at play here! Whatever the circumstances. this was a rash and unprofessional action and if, as seems likely, it was a thoughtless and childish retialiation he has no place as CEO until he gets himself clean/well. These questions should be asked and answered at the shareholder meeting or next quarterly. Pretty sure that 2020+ Ketamine Elon, the butcher of Twitter, the manchild who cornered himself into paying $44 billion for Twitter,... WOULD NOT PASS his own "Excellent, Necessary, and (certainly not) Trustworthy" test!
Another point... the other OEMs, other than hyundai, are turning to hybrids. This means that Tesla may not see the revenue from opening up its chargers for longer than anticipated. This may be why the slowdown in expansion.... there just won't be a lot of demand from OEM EV new car sales. Tesla may even anticipate that the OEMs will start going bankrupt after 2026..... making it less and less important to serve their older EV customers.
Let’s put it this way..I currently own two ICE cars, one of which I might have switched to a Tesla. However, now that this has happened, I’ll hang on to my ICE vehicles for now. This event has put another level of FUD on Tesla and others. I’m glad I’m not a shareholder of Tesla. I want to sleep well at night. As for ICE carmakers…they’re not perfect but at least they don’t make extreme and capricious alarms Tesla and Elon Musk. 😊
Tesla has no Investor Relations Dept. or way to get answers except Say questions at quarterly earnings. Elon only answers what he wants to on X. As an investor and car owner for 6 years, I would love to see a strong Board of Directors, who might remove Elon. If the Supercharging team wasn't doing their job, Elon should have put in place metrics to correct it before firing everyone. Elon has been mismanaging the company, or not managing for the last year or two. ALSO - lets not approve the reinstatement of 2018 55 Billion bonus to Elon. THat would pay for 500 employees for 1000 years.
Tesla does not need any new products or Super Chargers because everyone will be riding in Robo Taxis in 2 years. And we all know Elon is never wrong and has never had to reverse his position on anything. And those 500 people will be fine. They have stock,right… [Heavy sarcasm]
Other companies that are adopting are having to step in with the government’s incentive to build chargers. to have people that didn’t buy a Tesla put wear and tear on the chargers and make chargers more inconvenient for Tesla owners is nuts. Super chargers are already pretty full during busy times, I couldn’t imagine waiting for a ford Kia rivian to charge so I can charge my Tesla, answer… let ford Kia rjvian build superchargers . If you noticed the new v4 chargers have way a smaller illuminated Tesla logo on the top. All it takes is one deal made with other another company, manufacturer, or the government that say if you let us in on the network we will service the existing chargers and build new ones.
In Massachusetts there’s a law that if you build a parking lot, it needs to have the wiring for at least one charger, that can be expanded to multiple. New solar technology could mean new solutions to grid demand. It’s funny to see shell oil is building chargers.
Every time Tesla has come out and shown the new thing they were going to do, other companies immediately sprang up to compete. I think Elon is tired of that. You will notice that Tesla did not respond after the Figure 1 robot demo. Elon is through signaling where they are going and now will spring new product/capabilities after it is almost ready for deployment.
Super Chargers - Should all have StarLink for Security and more, Security cam going back to Tesla to see if all is OK, Solar Canopy with LED lighting for security and added power, Megapack at each site incase of power outage and for energy arbitrage. Firing everyone is BAD move, and is why all products need a CEO/President to manage group and product to report to full board. Elon's arbitrary layoffs did not happen at Boring Co, SpaceX, NeroLink, but Tesla we have it????? why??? Shitty if you are and employee, working hard for Tesla.
Elon literally took the holy grail juggernaught of marketing, Twitter, and branded it X. That is what every company calls a product when they can't come up with a name... Brand X. What a moron!
The stockholders and board agreed to take a deal that looked like a win-win… If the company didn’t make the insane goals that Elon set he would get nothing. If the company did meet those goals, which it did, the value to the shareholders would far far exceeded the amount of money that Elon received. It’s important to note that the compensation package was really just options on stock. Not cash. I think a lot of people are the kind that would cheer on somebody doubling down at the blackjack table and then when they win say nobody deserves to win that kind of money. Look in the mirror is it perhaps a little bit of envy that makes you want to take that deal away from Elon?
you have all this wrong he sated that new locations will decrease and 100% FOCUS ON EXPANDING LOCATIONS SMH!!!!!!!!!meaning making existent locations with more capacity.
I don't have an ev, no intention to ever get one. Nearest (any) fast charger is a 20+ minute drive ( 1 way). I live in an apartment, so no charging at home..
This is a disaster of epic proportions, and some OEMS might pull out of NACS, leaving charging back in a divided mess of networks. All because of a temper tantrum from Elon.
Thousands of hard working blue collar men and women who until this petulance decision were working to build the charge station network, now everything came to a grinding halt, sites are idle and secured with these folks sitting home with millions in unpaid invoices and no POC for answers, will never ever buy a car from this unstable chaotic company.
None of those systems charge with the speed of Superchargers, nor do they have the proven reliability of Superchargers. Like the fat girl said, "I'll dance with the one whut brung me".
I guess that's what happens when people forget to pay the owner or the corporation what they agreed to eh? Moral of the story SUE THE PANTS OFF ELON and learn new tricks... Supercharger 0 ELON 1 OR GOVERNMENT 0 TESLA 1
Superchargers may not continue to work if there is no team to maintain them. If it's cost cutting, maybe Elon should not have wasted $$$ on twitter? I would never work at Tesla as long as Elon is still there and as a Tesla owner, his erratic behavior worries me.
Tesla is getting a lot of focus because the main stream media wants Tesla to fail due to them not allowing unions. The reality is the ENTIRE auto industry is in SERIOUS trouble and Tesla is suffering like everyone else. This is what happens when inflation goes thru the roof and is costing the average american family $1,000/mo. When people have money they buy things they don't need like expensive cars, jet ski's, vacations (ok we all need vacations but super expensive ones) and more. I'd hate to be a salesperson today trying to sell expensive toys.
I watched this video for answers, not questions or random thoughts.
Thanks for warning me the vid is nothing but speculation. Click bait title of course
"This is why I've unsubscribed from this channel"
No more talent will want to work for this guy. Very sad…
Never had a single incident on superchargers during these 5 years
yeah agreed, supercharging network has been damn near flawless for me as well. But agreed on talent will have to approach Tesla with caution because of how they are handling their employees and teams so erratically.
With the caveat that I have absolutely no experience running a corporation I don’t think Elon‘s going to have any trouble attracting Young talent that shares his balls to the walls work ethic… I don’t think a lot of turnover at a company is a bad thing- it’s probably less problematic than the bloat so easily occurs as companies get bigger
Parallel to this…. What is Volkswagen doing pertaining to charging stations in relation to the settlement from dieselgate?
I'm starting to think this might be one reason the V4 supercharger rollout hasn't been done yet. Yes, we have some cabinets and stalls, but they're still running V3 hardware so they're not really faster than the existing V3 superchargers.
This is also bad optics for Tesla/Elon Musk as it makes the company a less desirable place for those with talent to want to work there. Those who weren't let go and are responsible for upkeep on the superchargers will either be thinking about jumping ship themselves as there's now more work they're expected to do and they may be thinking they're the next one to be laid off. Or they have less support to troubleshoot problematic issues they may run into when repairing a broken supercharger.
On the customer/owner side of things it could mean superchargers are down/broken more, and will take longer to get back up. It certainly means less supercharger sites will be opening up in the short term, and some areas still don't have sufficient coverage to handle the incoming demand from both Tesla vehicles and non-Tesla EV's adopting NACS.
I am sure BYD has a great Charging Service.........
Elon Musk tarnishing the brand continues and I see no end in sight.
You have no idea why Elon canned the charger team. There may be a very good reason. If I had to guess, I think there are two things at play:
1) Wait times on utilities running new lines was holding up new site deployments. Since Tesla gets govt money per charger, expanding existing sites means more and faster money.
2) I think Elon has seen how the OEMs are retreating to Hybrids. This means that there won't be the load on the Tesla network that they anticipated nor will they be getting in as much money from OEM EVs that they had thought. This may be the prime reason for the drastic downsizing.
How does this tarnish the brand? When an executive is aggressively taking action to improve the company how does anybody see that as anything but a good thing?
@@bspencersf Indeed it seems as though a lot of citizens think that a company exists just to give them a job and health insurance. Very entitled way of thinking.
@@nickmcconnell1291 right… There are plenty of companies who are not trying to innovate and push forward , that’s the job for many people. This move along with all the other information we have about Elon is readily available for people to assess before they accept the job at Tesla. I suspect high-performing people would want to take the exciting ride of working for Tesla for a while and then maybe choose to move to a less exciting more stable job later. I sincerely doubt being let go from Tesla is a black mark on your résumé outweighing the Gold star it will give you for working at such a innovative company
He IS the brand…
Well now some of the German car companies are considering staying with CCS. This was a dumb move.
The blueprint for the chargers are done, what else does the team have to do?
If Elon wanted a way to convince Tesla Owners and Investors (not a small number) to not support the reinstatement of his $$$ pay packet... He just found it.
Time for the well paid Board to step up and reign in the CEO.
the board is made up of his friends and family. they wont do anything
The Tesla Board is a joke. Good companies have strong independent boards to reign ceo excesses.
@@jpgsf1978It’s better than most.
Mark that would literally be the stupidest thing to do now. Elon is restructuring the company based on what he sees. He is no fool.
@@fractalelf7760 restructuring doesn't increase growth of Tesla isn't a growth company then it's valuation falls drastically. This barely saves Tesla 1 billion dollars . Yet he wants a 50 billion pay package .
Tesla would be better off expanding their charging network and selling more cars if Tesla is going good and not paying the pay package
Rumor has it that these layoffs only effected Ver3 Supercharger production and expansion. That may indicate that the Ver4 cabinets are finally in production and there’s no longer any use for Ver3 hardware production.
you think its cost cutting i think its a lost of direction. tsla stock is going under 150
The SC team was not doing an excellent job. Some SCs were too crowded, others were always empty. Some SCs were too slow, cables are too short for non-Teslas, most SCs are not designed for hauling, and so on.
Elon will hire new people with new ideas to make the network great again, before it can be further expanded.
100% - bought a tesla primarily for the supercharger network. The low maintenance and ability to camp inside in winter - that's second. Third is FSD.
It will be interesting to see how all this affects Tesla vehicle sales in the coming months. Also curious to see if the manner of layoffs will affect Tesla's ability to attract talent and employee loyalty to the company.
agreed. sales has already been all over the place with the price adjustments ruining resell value but yeah someone wanting to join Tesla before has to now consider could their job be cut randomly and abruptly.
Point of view, the super charging network is Tesla's most valuable asset.Tesla's Super Changing network basically eliminated Range Anxiety.
Up until now we did not even know that there were executives managing the superchargers. do we Even need somebody to manage the superchargers I think Elon Musk has automated this process and saved millions of dollars
Hmmm.... fired Supercharger team to cut cost's... that says it all.
Everyone that has been choosing a Tesla on the basis of "free charging" by buying a Tesla and using the Supercharger network because it's free have no one to blame but themselves. Someone is paying for the installation of these facilities and the electricity they use, and the support staff, engineers, and service technicians. Now this little marketing scam is coming to an end and the idiots that thought "free charging" was going to last forever are going to have to start paying for the service.
As far as firing the other "talent", in the corporate world it's because they were underperforming. And that's also not a suprise. Henry Ford thought the Model T was the perfect automobile for 20 years and almost bankrupted Ford Motor Company before his wife and son convinced him to make something other than the Model T. Take a look at any Tesla S, X, 3, or Y and they look the same today as the day they were first brought to market. Musk needs to take a lesson from Henry Ford on not producing th same product virtually unchanged for year after year.
Now that it's the standard other companies will build out 3rd party charging stations for him.
He has the government and a handful of other companies wanting to expand NACS.
He did the ground work.
I still think every city should have way more tesla stations.
But as companies start to install their own "tesla chargers" (others are able to buy them now). It doesn't require tesla themselves to be the only ones building out a charging network
Jalopnik just reported that he did it as a revenge tantrum after the team leader woman would only fire 20% or so. Now, he's stuck hiring some of them back.
Since his Supercharger team leader wouldn't choose which employees to fire, Elon decides to fire them all... Is this what we call the Sophie's Choice leadership model?
Soooooo , what’s the reason again ??
Elon made a strategic pivot.
A *massive* pivot.
It was resisted.
Elon fired the resistors and cut the workforce to make room for new staff focused on the new strategic direction.
So what is this new direction?
Tesla ran into two factors that prompted Elon to pivot. One was soft demand. The other was Elon's assessment of FSD's progress. It's time.
Soft demand means less than full utilization of existing production lines. It no longer made sense to Elon to add new lines. The challenge now is to get existing lines closer to max utilization. *Then* add new lines.
Other automakers have solved this exact problem many, many times: produce more model variants on existing lines. That's what Elon decided to do as part of his pivot.
The current lines are not set up for the unboxed assembly method. So that got postponed. What they need now is *constrained innovation.* Better models, more flexibility in line configuration, quick model change outs for current production lines. This is a big change in strategic direction, but it's not the biggest change in direction.
Robotaxies is bigger. Elon decided to flip the switch and get robotaxies to market starting now with an all-hands-on-deck effort.
Not everyone was on board. There were people telling him 'you can't do that.' Especially in the Supercharger team, I believe.
Elon knew that existing charger infrastructure is brilliant for dumb cars operated by drivers. It's not what Tesla needs for its robotaxi push. He needs to deploy induction chargers, fast. I suspect his Supercharger team resisted.
And some of his executives were too committed to the old strategy. They told him 'you can't do that.'
Elon will not tolerate being told 'no.' it's his strategy, or leave.
Can he do all of that?
Investors better hope he can. It's a 'bet the company' moment. Again.
The existing Supercharger network is in pretty good shape. The team he just fired did a fantastic job. They can coast on that network for a while. But it's not good at all for robotaxies. Tesla needs induction chargers, and fast. It's a whole new product line.
Tesla also has to build out the FSD software in areas they ignored to work on core functionality. Now they need UI, scheduling, solutions for police interactions, shift to a 'never disengage' decision matrix. They need to solve billing, payments, tax records, all sorts of stuff. And fast.
And Elon has begun to tackle the political side. Opposition to Tesla's robotaxies will be robust and deep-pocketed. We got a sense of his strategy this past week: he's leveraging China. Autocracies can go fast on decisions if they want to. Robotaxies will come to China first, giving the CCP bragging rights. They love that.
He got the CCP to approve FSD deployment. Is working on the data training problem. Linked up with a domestic map company. Tesla and the CCP will go blisteringly fast.
And that will put enormous pressure on Biden and Congress. *Enormous.*
There's a lot to do. Innovations. Inventions. New stuff to create and manufacture. New software. Political wrangling. All at breakneck speed.
It could go badly. Not everyone at Tesla was on board with this sudden strategic pivot. Hence the firings - and investor uncertainty.
Tesla stock will be volatile. *Really* volatile. Might be more downs than up. Short-sellers are not finished with Tesla.
Elon bet the company again.
I feel queasy about this strategic pivot. A lot could go wrong. But I never bet against Elon.
What's going on dude is elon is rogue and needs to be FIRED like right now
Why leave dumb comments?
I'd like to see Musk be the future of EVs, position himself as being the only one to drive the concept forward, making it have to rely on him, and then he shuts it all down and shits on the entire industry LOL. On a serious note, I like that the option of owning an EV exists, I'm not into it, and I'm definitely not into politicians forcing these vehicles onto us
Here’s what I think is about to happen (re Tesla Superchargers):
Remember “way back” when someone said Superchargers would never be a “for profit” business? Well, that chick and the flock it’s evolved into - I think - had come home to roost and “there’s no room” in today’s Tesla Inn for that kinda business model.
So, what I think they’re doing - in the now typical Musk way - is to unceremoniously kick that flock out of the Tesla nest (lock, stock and and employees) and let them fend for themselves.
Tesla benefits (profits) from the “sale” of its “Supercharging” investment while significantly increasing its long term profitability - and,
NACS (formerly called Tesla Superchargers but now legitimately recognized as North America Charging Standard) benefits (profits) from Tesla’s prior overall investment, adoption of NACS by major EV manufacturers and a workforce that hits the ground running …
How’s that for wishful thinking?
I thought build back better had billions of dollars for an EV network? Where did all this money go? Is it possible that Tesla realizes that the cost of super chargers is too high?
I do wonder how much had to do with 4680 batteries not living up to their potential.
They actually are
"maybe there's a plan here". That's the positive spin folks are proposing. Maybe not.
yeah only time will show what the master plan is here.
Head of Investor Relations and Head of HR left. In a few days Tesla has gone from a market leader to a market follower. Furthermore, if Tesla wanted to expand to South America there could be no Supercharger network to go with it. Looks like an emotional decision not a thoughtful one.
Tesla has enough new charging sites. What they don't have is enough chargers at many of their sites to hold the load they will be incurring with other OEM EV car makers having access.
Also, Elon has just been to China. I think he saw there that China will be entering a large economic downturn. I think Elon expects that car sales there, in general, will plummet. He also expects this contagion to spread just like the one in the US did.
Elon is battoning down the hatches. He asked all his line of business heads to cut headcount. I suspect that the head of charging didn't do that or argued against it. Elon said "fine", and since he did not have info on who in that dept were top players, he cut the whole thing. I'm sure that the team that installs and maintenances the existing chargers is intact. He probably now is rehiring or shifting personnel as needed to cover the goals for charging that he wants to achieve. Bigger sites but not as many new ones. There's are two many as six or eight charger sites that are having issues with load.... especially in CA.
superchargers are needed since charging at home is real slow
its not that slow if your charging overnight with a 240 at 30miles/hr. Supercharging I typically only use when roadtripping.
Tesla already has the best Supercharger locations. BP and others that want to be in the gas station business can pay for additional stations. Tesla can get rev share from selling key NACS components. v4 chargers aren’t working as expected so fresh blood is needed to change the team’s mentality.
so your saying remove old team and replace with a new supercharging team. So there will still be a Supercharging team. That makes sense.
What is click bait title. Of course superchargers aren’t going away. Elon Musk has already addressed this and states that the Priority now is going to be on expanding existing facilities rather than creating new ones, even though new ones will still be created, just at a slower pace. Elon has always been about getting the most from the least in every business he has ever run, and this is no different. Additionally, what Elon did not say is that it is very likely for others to foot the bill to install superchargers so that it is not a financial burden for Tesla, which is ultimately the way to go. This story is a whole lot of nothing about nothing.
Or as Dylan Loomis would say, this video is a nothingburger. Thank you, @guildguitars6349.
I felt like the lone ranger until I spotted your comment. Yessir, I believe you are spot on.
Simple answer: Tesla is seeing the enormous growth and attention of battery swapping in China and Europe as it has so many benefits (fast, no battery degradation, etc) NIO has already an enormous swapping infrastructure there. My guess is that Tesla wants to build a solid battery swapping infrastructure in the US before NIO enters te US.
None of the Teslas sold have swappable batteries. This isn't going to happen.
Slowing down Supercharger growth is a huge mistake on Elon's part. Just like with FSD, things are starting to go backwards at Tesla. Supercharger stations need to quadruple quickly with all the other EV's and Tesla's on the roads. NACS is now the "standard" charging connection, so with that you don't slow down the buildup of new stations. And Tesla still doesn't have a PR department. What the heck is Elon thinking?! This is all very disappointing. Elon please move away from X and get back to focusing on Tesla.
I've been waiting 3 years for my Tesla stock to do something and it hasn't. If it ever gets back to $1,000 a share I will sell it all and never buy it again. And it's because Elon can't stop tweeting crazy stuff, which effects the share price. I think people in positions of influence need to stay off social media behaving like children.
So many people just can’t handle the Elon roller coaster. For me, I’m just gonna hang on and enjoy the ride with my mouth hanging open screaming with pure amazement. It’s worth it to watch even if he fails… But it’s gonna piss me off if he fails because jealousy and envy from boring people… you don’t like his style fine don’t buy the car don’t invest in the stock, but then please have the grace to not send negative energy towards those of us that are enjoying ourselves with this amazing product and admiring his amazing achievements
Elon or the board needs to answer how this decision was made and who had input to it and notice of it. If, as it seems extremely likely, this was Elon lashing out in a fit of pique at the Supercharger head resisting his firing edict this is not a man that should be leading a critically important company. For all we know his Ketamine (ab)use, that he freely admits to taking to control his mood, might even be at play here!
Whatever the circumstances. this was a rash and unprofessional action and if, as seems likely, it was a thoughtless and childish retialiation he has no place as CEO until he gets himself clean/well. These questions should be asked and answered at the shareholder meeting or next quarterly.
Pretty sure that 2020+ Ketamine Elon, the butcher of Twitter, the manchild who cornered himself into paying $44 billion for Twitter,... WOULD NOT PASS his own "Excellent, Necessary, and (certainly not) Trustworthy" test!
Another point... the other OEMs, other than hyundai, are turning to hybrids. This means that Tesla may not see the revenue from opening up its chargers for longer than anticipated. This may be why the slowdown in expansion.... there just won't be a lot of demand from OEM EV new car sales. Tesla may even anticipate that the OEMs will start going bankrupt after 2026..... making it less and less important to serve their older EV customers.
and now he has hired some of them back
Its because of companies overcharging tesla on the rent for new charging stations and with the absolutely criminal prices of pge can you blame him?
Pretty obvious that Elon is doubling down on Tesla being an AI company
Let’s put it this way..I currently own two ICE cars, one of which I might have switched to a Tesla. However, now that this has happened, I’ll hang on to my ICE vehicles for now. This event has put another level of FUD on Tesla and others. I’m glad I’m not a shareholder of Tesla. I want to sleep well at night. As for ICE carmakers…they’re not perfect but at least they don’t make extreme and capricious alarms Tesla and Elon Musk. 😊
Tesla has no Investor Relations Dept. or way to get answers except Say questions at quarterly earnings. Elon only answers what he wants to on X. As an investor and car owner for 6 years, I would love to see a strong Board of Directors, who might remove Elon. If the Supercharging team wasn't doing their job, Elon should have put in place metrics to correct it before firing everyone. Elon has been mismanaging the company, or not managing for the last year or two. ALSO - lets not approve the reinstatement of 2018 55 Billion bonus to Elon. THat would pay for 500 employees for 1000 years.
NEW: brains, ideas, 800VDC charging, more kW/stall, where the charger is best to install to each stall. . .
EV adoption will not grow without charging infrastructure expansion. I fear Tesla can no longer expand their highly reliable US network of chargers.
Tesla does not need any new products or Super Chargers because everyone will be riding in Robo Taxis in 2 years. And we all know Elon is never wrong and has never had to reverse his position on anything. And those 500 people will be fine. They have stock,right… [Heavy sarcasm]
I’m not worried. Sorry for the people who lost their jobs though, I feel bad for them.
Other companies that are adopting are having to step in with the government’s incentive to build chargers. to have people that didn’t buy a Tesla put wear and tear on the chargers and make chargers more inconvenient for Tesla owners is nuts. Super chargers are already pretty full during busy times, I couldn’t imagine waiting for a ford Kia rivian to charge so I can charge my Tesla, answer… let ford Kia rjvian build superchargers . If you noticed the new v4 chargers have way a smaller illuminated Tesla logo on the top. All it takes is one deal made with other another company, manufacturer, or the government that say if you let us in on the network we will service the existing chargers and build new ones.
In Massachusetts there’s a law that if you build a parking lot, it needs to have the wiring for at least one charger, that can be expanded to multiple. New solar technology could mean new solutions to grid demand. It’s funny to see shell oil is building chargers.
Every time Tesla has come out and shown the new thing they were going to do, other companies immediately sprang up to compete.
I think Elon is tired of that. You will notice that Tesla did not respond after the Figure 1 robot demo. Elon is through signaling where they are going and now will spring new product/capabilities after it is almost ready for deployment.
Good point
Super Chargers - Should all have StarLink for Security and more, Security cam going back to Tesla to see if all is OK, Solar Canopy with LED lighting for security and added power, Megapack at each site incase of power outage and for energy arbitrage. Firing everyone is BAD move, and is why all products need a CEO/President to manage group and product to report to full board. Elon's arbitrary layoffs did not happen at Boring Co, SpaceX, NeroLink, but Tesla we have it????? why??? Shitty if you are and employee, working hard for Tesla.
So much in the pipe that Elon can see but we mere mortals have trouble visualizing.
true. I dont think my brain moves quite at his rate.
Elon literally took the holy grail juggernaught of marketing, Twitter, and branded it X. That is what every company calls a product when they can't come up with a name... Brand X. What a moron!
and elon things he deserved 50 billion to be ceo. lmfao
The stockholders and board agreed to take a deal that looked like a win-win… If the company didn’t make the insane goals that Elon set he would get nothing. If the company did meet those goals, which it did, the value to the shareholders would far far exceeded the amount of money that Elon received. It’s important to note that the compensation package was really just options on stock. Not cash. I think a lot of people are the kind that would cheer on somebody doubling down at the blackjack table and then when they win say nobody deserves to win that kind of money. Look in the mirror is it perhaps a little bit of envy that makes you want to take that deal away from Elon?
you have all this wrong he sated that new locations will decrease and 100% FOCUS ON EXPANDING LOCATIONS SMH!!!!!!!!!meaning making existent locations with more capacity.
They have to make way for the sociopaths $47 billion dollar payout.
Thanks for your diagnosis Dr. Phil.
👍
I don't have an ev, no intention to ever get one. Nearest (any) fast charger is a 20+ minute drive ( 1 way).
I live in an apartment, so no charging at home..
Absolutely no good information here at all…….click bait title.
This is a disaster of epic proportions, and some OEMS might pull out of NACS, leaving charging back in a divided mess of networks. All because of a temper tantrum from Elon.
Thousands of hard working blue collar men and women who until this petulance decision were working to build the charge station network, now everything came to a grinding halt, sites are idle and secured with these folks sitting home with millions in unpaid invoices and no POC for answers, will never ever buy a car from this unstable chaotic company.
It's not over for Tesla but it the beginning of Tesla to be just another Car Company!
People forget about BP buying the hardware and building thousands of chargers also Hilton group doing the same installing in 20,000 of them
None of those systems charge with the speed of Superchargers, nor do they have the proven reliability of Superchargers. Like the fat girl said, "I'll dance with the one whut brung me".
@@The_DuMont_Networksays who? They’re literally superchargers.
I guess that's what happens when people forget to pay the owner or the corporation what they agreed to eh? Moral of the story SUE THE PANTS OFF ELON and learn new tricks... Supercharger 0 ELON 1 OR GOVERNMENT 0 TESLA 1
The first two minutes are repeating the same thing again and again. Thumbs down
Aimless rambling with no substance or direction …….
This video is a waste of time. Clickbait.
elon has lost plot
Does this guy need help?
Superchargers may not continue to work if there is no team to maintain them. If it's cost cutting, maybe Elon should not have wasted $$$ on twitter? I would never work at Tesla as long as Elon is still there and as a Tesla owner, his erratic behavior worries me.
He probably wouldn’t hire you to begin with 😂😂
Tesla is getting a lot of focus because the main stream media wants Tesla to fail due to them not allowing unions. The reality is the ENTIRE auto industry is in SERIOUS trouble and Tesla is suffering like everyone else. This is what happens when inflation goes thru the roof and is costing the average american family $1,000/mo. When people have money they buy things they don't need like expensive cars, jet ski's, vacations (ok we all need vacations but super expensive ones) and more. I'd hate to be a salesperson today trying to sell expensive toys.
First to comment. yea baby!!
Yea Baby!!!
appreciate you