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Things are going so well for Tesla that Elon Musk is scaling back charger plans, rescinding offers made to interns, and firing a lot of people including the entire supercharger team.

Hello Elon, What’s Going On?

The Wall Street Journal reports Tesla Is Pulling Back From EV Charging, and People Are Freaking Out

Tesla’s move this week to lay off much of the team responsible for creating the largest and most successful electric-vehicle charging network in the U.S. threw the industry into a state of shock and confusion.

The layoffs halted construction work at a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas. In New York, property owners in negotiations with Tesla were left hanging as discussions about adding chargers to their sites were ongoing.

After Tesla opened its charging to other cars, major automakers spent last summer announcing a switch to the Tesla-designed charging connector and signing agreements to allow their customers access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

Some of those laid off woke up Tuesday morning to find themselves locked out of the company computer system and learned about the layoffs in messages to their personal email accounts.

“Dear Employee,” the message began. “As you know, we recently announced a significant decision that impacts the entire organization, and you directly.”

The Information earlier reported that Musk, in an internal email sent late Monday, said he would dismiss everyone in the Supercharger group, and its senior director Rebecca Tinucci was leaving the company.

Andres Pinter, co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, a subcontractor building a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas for Tesla, said all 20 of its contacts at Tesla had been laid off. Pinter has received a series of bounceback emails—“This email address is no longer valid. Any future emails sent to this address will not be received”—but no other communication from the company. He halted construction work at the sites for now.

Which Comes First?

Excuse me for asking, but which comes first, increased demand for EVs or a charging network?

Slower pace? Like halting construction work at a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas and not even giving the developer a person to contact? Like everyone in the Supercharger group dismissed.

Can I ask exactly what is proceeding?

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s rampant job cuts are hitting even the lowest on the corporate ladder.

Tesla Interns Say Offers Are Getting Revoked

Bloomberg reports Tesla Interns Say Offers Are Getting Revoked Weeks Before Their Start Date

Elon Musk’s latest cost-cutting victims: Summer interns.

Tesla Inc. is rescinding offers just weeks before internships were set to start, prompting aspiring employees to take to LinkedIn to appeal to other employers to take them in.

“At 8:46am, I opened a Tesla email for flight info. By 11:25am, my internship offer was gone,” wrote Miami University student Joshua Schreiber, who said his start date was three weeks away and that he had already spent “thousands on housing.”

More than 3,000 university and community college students from around the world are hired for Tesla internships each year, according to the company’s last Impact Report. “Perform meaningful work from day one,” reads the company’s intern website.

Deliveries

On April 2, I commented on Tesla’s Deliveries Drop for the First Time Since 2020, It’s Demand Not Supply

 Tesla’s heydays of surging demand growth is over. Competition is increasing and relative demand growth, if not absolute demand growth, is falling.

If Tesla can scale up semi production that would be a big boost. But Elon Musk has been promising 50,000 semis a year, every year for four years and has delivered a grand total of 100.

Only 35 Class 8 Truck EV Charging Stations

One of the things holding up use of electric semis is expense. A second is the number of charging stations.

Please note there are 4 Million Semis on the Road, Only 35 Class 8 Truck EV Charging Stations

Electrek says Tesla’s giga factory is only about 30% complete and Tesla hasn’t expanded the facility for years.

And now Musk is cancelling charging stations.

Tesla’s Autopilot Linked to Hundreds of Crashes in a New Safety Probe

Tesla is supposedly accelerating plans for Full Self Driving (FSD). How exactly is that supposed to work when Tesla’s Autopilot Linked to Hundreds of Crashes in a New Safety Probe

The regulator said it was closing its earlier probe and opening the new one into the adequacy of the recall remedy, which was deployed through a software update. The recall in December was among Tesla’s largest to date and involved nearly all the vehicles it had sold in the U.S. 

NHTSA also compared Autopilot to similar systems deployed by auto-industry rivals, saying it found Tesla’s approach was an “industry outlier.” The agency said the Autopilot name “elicits the idea of drivers not being in control,” while other systems use terms like “assist” or “team” to imply that active supervision is required.

Elon Musk Fires 10 Percent of Tesla Workforce

On April 15, I noted Elon Musk Fires 10 Percent of Tesla Workforce, Prepares for “Next Phase of Growth”

Yes indeed.

Musk prepares for growth by firing 10 percent of the staff (I have seen reports of 20 percent), halting construction of gigafactories, laying off the entire supercharger team, scaling back, supercharger deployment, and even rescinding offers to interns.

Isn’t that how every company prepares for growth?

My conclusion: Orders have literally crashed.

Lesson in Life and a Lesson in Musk

If you believe anything Musk says from here on out, you are certifiably crazy.

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