- The day before Elon Musk fired virtually all of Tesla’s electric-vehicle charging division last month, they had high hopes as charging chief Rebecca Tinucci went to meet with Musk about the network’s future, four former charging-network staffers told Reuters.
A letter sent earlier this month by a Tesla global-supply manager to Supercharger contractors and suppliers instructed them to “please hold on breaking ground on any newly awarded construction projects” and halt materials purchases, according to a copy reviewed by Reuters.
The company posted its first decline in auto sales since 2020 in the first quarter amid fierce competition from Chinese electric-vehicle makers and sagging worldwide EV demand. Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-awaited affordable car known as the Model 2. That has thrown into doubt Tesla’s plans for new factories in Mexico and India, where Musk had been expected to travel last month to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before canceling at the last minute.
That owed to Tesla’s cost-control and extensive analysis to choose locations that could draw business throughout the day rather than only during peak-demand times, when electricity costs spike. One former Supercharger staffer said Tesla’s costs per-charging-port were typically at least 50% lower than those of competitors.
Other companies may be able to fill the gap, the former employees said, but the goodwill built over time with utilities and other contractors from Tesla’s large-scale charging investments will be difficult to replicate.