The Tesla Supercharger Project Hasn’t Arrived: Tesla’s No-Go Theorem Has Spanned for the Past 10 Years

In places where demand for public charging is high, EV industry players have scrambled to find non-Tesla solutions for the dearth of chargers. A New York City initiative launched last fall to move Uber and Lyft drivers into electric vehicles led to long lines at local Tesla showrooms—and surging charging demand. The charging sessions at the three city locations of the company went up 10-fold since the city launched its initiative last fall. Once the company heard about the Supercharger team layoffs on Tuesday morning, it entered talks to take over three former Tesla leases, says spokesperson Robert Familiar: one in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn, and one in Queens.

In reality, Tesla is doing the opposite of expanding its network. According to sources, the four New York-area Supercharger locations had been canceled due to Musk’s prediction of slower installations. Meanwhile, emails to contacts at Tesla’s charging division have been bouncing back, a contractor who works on the company’s charging station installations told E&E News. As the contractor was heading to a site in Dallas, Tesla’s construction lead called to say the whole team was laid off.

Gordon says that it is more compatible with a startup than the most valuable publicly traded car company in the world. We wouldn’t do business with a new version of the company because the premise for a contract is reliability, even if there was a new version of them.

Bounced emails. Projects that have been put off. Delayed adapters. The layoffs of 500 employees from the Supercharger business, including the division’s top executive, Rebecca Tinucci, are a direct result of the approach Musk took to cost cutting.

The projects to install the Level 2 destination chargers at apartment complexes have been affected. A condo owner named Don Burke posted on X that his building was in the middle of installing four chargers when the project stalled. Burke said his emails to Tesla employees have bounced back, and there’s no indication that there’s anyone left at the company who can help.

The company has a contract to install up to 20,000Charging Stations at the hotels, but it’s unclear if the project will be affected. A spokesperson for the hotel chain did not respond to a request for comment.

The availability of NACS kits that are supposed to be sent to owners of Ford, Rivian, and GM electric vehicles this year is in danger because of the cuts by the company. Some Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners took to Reddit sharing emails sent from Ford that their complimentary fast-charging adapter is delayed “due to supply constraints.” Some of them have moved as late as September.

Tinucci oversaw the execution of the company’s portfolio of Supercharger locations, led business-to-business charging projects, and spearheaded the development of the Supercharger that can plug in just about any vehicle.

According to a former employee who spoke to The Washington Post, Tinucci met with Musk privately before the layoffs to express her opposition to the magnitude of the layoffs. If Tinucci and other members of the Supercharger team are out, then the big lead is at risk.