Did Tesla Actually Lay Off The Complete Supercharger Crew? Actually??

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In accordance with a current report by Electrek that repeated paywalled reporting by The Info, Tesla has performed one other spherical of layoffs, this time eliminating your complete Supercharger workforce. With out additional affirmation from an organization that notoriously maintains no press contacts (and can mechanically ship you a poop emoji in the event you e-mail them with a query), we are able to’t relay this reporting as reality simply but. However, it deserves some dialogue.

What The Info and Electrek Reported

We’ve already reported on Tesla’s different current layoffs. These are confirmed, and no one’s denying that 10% of the workforce was dismissed. Amongst those that departed the corporate was Rohan Patel, the top of coverage and a former Obama administration official, and Drew Baglino, head of powertrain and power engineering. The corporate additionally fired the entire promoting workforce, a division that had not been arrange for very lengthy.

However, there have been rumors that the carnage wasn’t over. Some have been saying that as much as 20% of the workforce might get the axe (in complete).

The size of the layoffs hasn’t but reached rumored ranges, however in keeping with an Elon Musk e-mail anonymously equipped to The Info, the corporate did conduct one other spherical of layoffs lately. If the e-mail is actual, the layoffs aren’t over but, and have already hit some key groups.

First off, the most important information within the alleged e-mail was that both most of or your complete Supercharger workforce had been laid off, together with its chief, Rebecca Tinucci. In complete, the workforce included 500 individuals. This appears very unusual as a result of Tinucci led the corporate’s profitable effort to deliver NACS charging to different corporations, and she or he had even been given a slot within the TIME 100 local weather listing as a result of this work!

The e-mail (if actual) says that Tesla’s Supercharging effort gained’t be stalled out as a result of these layoffs. New Superchargers are alleged to nonetheless occur, and people underneath building can be completed. Whether or not this is able to truly sluggish issues down? Who is aware of.

Different firings/layoffs embody different executives and groups. Rohan Patel left in the course of the preliminary spherical of layoffs, and now his total public coverage workforce has reportedly been eradicated. Additionally, Daniel Ho, chief of Car Packages and New Product Initiatives, is reportedly out. Each of those groups appear to be very important.

The alleged e-mail goes on to say that additional layoffs are vital and that they have to be “exhausting core”. In it, Musk says that any supervisor who doesn’t do ample layoffs and solely hold “glorious, vital, and reliable” workers will themselves be relieved.

Why This Is Nonsensical & Might Be Bogus

Like Electrek’s author, I don’t assume this announcement (assuming it’s actual, after all) makes a lick of sense. Once I first examine it, my first response was to launch a brief string of expletives into the room, complicated members of the family who have been glad to listen to I wasn’t upset about something that impacts us personally.

Right here’s the factor: Tesla has, palms down, the most effective charging expertise within the trade. As a lot as I personally don’t like some issues Elon Musk says and does, it might be silly to dispute this. There are extra chargers in additional locations offering higher reliability proper now than anyone else. And, the proof is within the pudding, with different producers having reluctantly been pressured to affix the Supercharger community or die.

How might a workforce that has executed glorious work like this need to be handed swords for figurative seppuku? I can’t reply that. The one potential difficulty was that different corporations past Ford and Rivian weren’t given entry as quick as Musk would have favored, however that’s pure wild hypothesis. We do not know what the reasoning was for this transfer, assuming there was any.

The identical is true for different groups, like the general public coverage workforce. Tesla’s going through some extreme challenges in that space, and wanted seasoned and skilled individuals to cope with that.

So, absent some actual affirmation from extra sources, CleanTechnica can not report this as reality but. It’s simply too outlandish to 100% imagine at this level. I hope we discover out within the coming days that it was a prank or one thing.

However, It Would possibly Be True

That is the half the place I depart from reporting and evaluation and delve into hypothesis and opinion. When you’re not a fan of hypothesis and opinion, be at liberty to click on the again button or take a look at a few of our different articles. You’ve been pretty warned. However, be at liberty to roast me within the feedback if that makes you are feeling higher!

Sadly, we’ve seen Elon Musk do issues that don’t make plenty of sense, particularly when he says one thing must be “exhausting core” like this alleged letter says. The worst instance was a stop and desist letter we bought from Tesla, after I had reported on some issues Tesla homeowners have been having with Geico insurance coverage. As an alternative of seeing that I used to be standing up for Tesla drivers and the corporate itself, Musk’s “exhausting core” workforce of attorneys misunderstood the article as an assault on Tesla, and responded threatening to sue.

So, sure, once I see that Elon needs to be “exhausting core”, I are likely to interpret that as “I’m going off half cocked”.

So, whereas I hope that the e-mail was a prank and that Tesla didn’t lay off key groups on the worst time in order that the corporate might do one thing “exhausting core”, it’s not fully exterior of the realm of chance that the corporate (led by its Technoprince) would do one thing this bone-headed.

Whereas many individuals assume I don’t like Tesla, that’s not likely true. I would like the corporate to proceed to succeed. If it weren’t for Tesla, we wouldn’t be seeing the remainder of the trade being pushed towards electrification (even when a few of them will solely go hybrid for now). The established order was figuring out for the automotive trade, and it wanted the kick within the crotch that Tesla delivered.

An organization that makes unhealthy HR strikes, makes everybody really feel like they work for Darth Vader and may very well be choked at any time, and earns unhealthy will from the general public can’t reach the long term, or gained’t succeed as a lot because it might have. However, the parable that corporations should repeatedly kill individuals’s desires and “reduce the fats” is sticky as a result of it matches in properly with our cultural myths about work in the USA. It’s simply not supported by the proof.

Featured picture by Jennifer Sensiba.