Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is reportedly having second thoughts about laying off the company’s Supercharger team. Musk is allegedly hiring back most of the 500-member group after giving them the boot a week ago via email, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
On April 29, Musk revealed to Tesla staff that senior director of electric vehicle charging, Rebecca Tinucci, is exiting the company along with her team of roughly 500. Her team was responsible for Tesla’s Supercharger initiative, which develops fast-charging stations that can charge Tesla vehicles in 15 minutes, adding 200 miles of range.
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In the email announcing the cut to the team, Musk claimed that he wanted staff to be “absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction” going forward, according to a report from The Information.
After laying off the team, Musk faced backlash for the decision as many assumed that Tesla’s investment in superchargers were coming to a major halt. Musk later clarified on social media platform X that he will spend over $500 million to expand the company’s Supercharger network.
Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2024
That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher.
Now, Musk has allegedly hired an unknown number of employees back to the team, and one of them is Max de Zegher, the director of charging for North America, according to Bloomberg. He was one of the “top managers” who was a part of the Supercharger initiative.
Musk’s firing of the team last month reportedly caused confusion amongst its partners who were working on projects with the company. The cut came after Tesla began expanding its Supercharger network to more non-Tesla EV owners across the country in February. In the company’s first-quarter earnings report for 2024, it revealed that its fleet of Supercharger stations increased by 26% year-over-year, and its Supercharger connectors rose by 27%.
The decision to hire back the Supercharger team comes after one of the company’s competitors, BP, reportedly lent out its hand to recruit Tesla’s laid off Supercharging team members to its own electric vehicle charging division.
Over the past few weeks, Tesla has been cutting costs via headcount reductions. On April 14, the company laid off 10% of its staff. Musk blamed the job cuts on “rapid growth,” which has led to a “duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas,” according to a memo he sent to employees.
The company later cut its summer internship program, which frustrated students who were already enrolled in it and have already solidified travel and housing accommodations for the job.
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