Tesla is walking back some of the layoffs to its Supercharger team, according to a new report, as the electric automaker brought back a key executive in one of the most crucial parts of its business.
In April, Tesla laid off many members of its Supercharging team, including two key executives: Max de Zegher, who was the Director of North American Charging, and Rebecca Tinucci, a Senior Director of the Charging Team.
However, it appears Tesla is starting to walk back some of the layoffs.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Tesla has brought back de Zegher, who was let go earlier this month.
His LinkedIn page still shows him as the Director of Charging for the North American market, where Tesla dominates the EV infrastructure.
Many did not agree with Musk’s move to basically obliterate Tesla’s Charging team from top to bottom. Musk faced pushback from fans and investors on X, the social media platform he purchased in 2022.
Charging is a key part of the EV ownership experience and one of the main reasons people choose Tesla over other manufacturers. However, Tesla’s adoption of the North American Charging Standard (NACS) gave more than 15 automakers access to the Supercharger Network.
Automakers gained access earlier this year, starting with Ford in March. The pause of the Supercharger buildout seemed to be at the worst time, considering more companies were planning to gain access to the infrastructure through the next two years.
Musk said Tesla still planned “to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations.” Additionally, the company would focus on “100% uptime and expansion of existing locations.”
Elon Musk explains reasoning behind Tesla Supercharger team disband
Musk’s knee-jerk reaction may have been a mistake. Last week, he said Tesla would spend “well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2024
Perhaps Tesla and Musk realized an adequate team of engineers, executives, and other team members would be crucial to these plans being feasible.
Do you agree with this move? If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
