Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that Tesla is not going to abandon the mighty Supercharger network. Even better, the company plans on adding "thousands" of brand-new DC stalls by the end of the year. That's exactly what EV owners and people who support the move to zero-tailpipe emission mobility have wanted to hear ever since the outspoken CEO unexpectedly dissolved the Tesla Charging team of over 500 people.
It does make sense when you think about it. Why would Tesla give up on an investment that is soon going to become a very profitable venture? After all, it made all the right decisions ahead of everyone else and stayed the course even when competitors were publicly diminishing its efforts to give EV owners the necessary means to travel long distances comfortably and forget about range anxiety.
Tesla scored a massive win last year when Ford announced that it would ditch the Combo Charging System (CCS) connector in favor of the North American Charging Standard (NACS, standardized as the SAE J3400), formerly known simply as the Tesla plug. Besides publicly confirming Tesla's win, the Blue Oval also said that it would provide free adapters to current owners of vehicles like the F-150 Lightning or Mustang Mach-E. The Dearborn-based automaker wanted to give everyone a chance to experience what Supercharging is like even before installing the connector on its EVs.
Then, General Motors (GM) followed suit with a similar agreement, and the floodgates opened. Almost everyone, including rivals like Electrify America, announced they would gradually make the switch. At the time of this writing, only a couple of automakers haven't publicly confirmed that they will also follow the same path.
So, besides outnumbering other DC fast-charging providers with its number of Supercharger stalls and enjoying a great reputation for dependability, Tesla's high-power charging network became another symbol of success. The disruptor risked it all (including bankruptcy) and managed to show everyone that the all-electric vehicle could replace the conventional car.
Photo: Ford
That's why everyone was surprised when a harsh email revealed that almost the whole team behind the entire charging project (excluding maintenance) disappeared overnight. Loyal employees were surprised to discover that they couldn't punch in any longer. It was a worrying move, one that put everyone on high alert. Even fossil fuel companies like BP tried to find a way to profit from what had happened.
Tesla Charging customers, suppliers, partners, and local governments were also dumbfounded because nobody was answering their questions anymore. Elon Musk made everyone feel like the EV success story was all of a sudden put on hold. It wasn't only about Tesla anymore. Almost the entire North American auto industry relied more or less on the company to keep expanding the Supercharger network and maintaining the existing infrastructure.
Weird or not, the decision to disband a great team seems to be Elon Musk's way of doing things. "Move fast and break things" might actually be his motto because the CEO told everyone that the company needed to be "absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction" amid falling EV demand. Since his subordinates didn't act quickly enough, he made the decision to send everyone home without discrimination. Then, other employees had to step in and ask Tesla's business partners nicely for patience as they were navigating that surprise reshuffle.
It wasn't the first time Elon Musk acted this way. His biography written by Walter Isaacson revealed that Musk picked a team of eight SpaceX rocket engineers to replace the entire Starlink top-level team on a random Sunday night in June. However, the entrepreneur flew to Seattle to deliver the news in person, instead of sending an email.
Photo: Ford
Now, the executive says that Tesla will spend over half a billion dollars on adding more, completely new Supercharger pedestals. So, the expansion should continue. The world's most valuable automaker will add more to its network of over 6,000 Supercharger stations.
Elon Musk's announcement is certainly reassuring for existing EV owners and prospective buyers. However, it's worth noting that the CEO's clarification only came after the EV maker's Australian division sent out an email telling everyone that the brand would continue improving the customer experience, adding new DC fast chargers, and maintaining the existing infrastructure.
Now that Tesla said it would continue to "focus on the ease of charging, competitive pricing, and investing in the charging experience holistically" globally, it's time for rivals like Electrify America, EVgo, and ChargePoint to reassess and establish a new way forward. There's money in the NEVI program for everyone.
Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.
That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher.
Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one. Full profile
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