Tesla shares drop nearly 6% after Musk cuts about 500 jobs in Supercharger team

Tesla
shares
fell
nearly
6%
on
Tuesday
following
news
that
CEO

Elon
Musk
was
pressing
ahead
with
more
job
cuts
at


Tesla,
impacting
an
estimated
500
employees
in
its
Supercharger
team.

The
stock
closed
at
$183.28
and
is
now
down
26%
for
the
year.

According
to

The
Information,
Musk
sent
an
email
to
managers
at
Tesla
overnight
announcing
the
departure
of
key
executives,
including
Senior
Director
of
EV
Charging
Rebecca
Tinucci,
and
Director
of
Vehicle
Programs
Daniel
Ho.
In
the
email,
Musk
also
expressed
consternation
that
Tesla
management
hadn’t
thinned
out
the
company’s
staff
more
promptly
at
his
direction.

Several
employees
whose
roles
were
cut
and
one
person
who
is
still
working
at
Tesla
in
California
confirmed
with
CNBC
the
details
of
the
ongoing
reorganization,
asking
to
remain
unnamed
to
discuss
sensitive
issues.
Other
laid-off
Tesla
employees
posted
publicly
about
Tesla
shrinking
the
Supercharger
team.

In
cutting
that
group,
Tesla
revealed
it’s
throttling
the
expansion
of
its
Supercharger
network
in
the
U.S.
The
move
comes
after
Tesla
struck
partnerships
with


Ford,


GM
and
other
industry
players
ensuring
they
would
manufacture
cars
using
the
Tesla
NACS
(North
American
Charging
Standard)
for
compatibility
with
Tesla
charging
stations,
and
allowing
those
companies’
customers
to
use
Tesla
stations.

The
layoffs
now
underway
are
part
of
a
massive
cost-cutting
measure
by
Tesla
following
a
9%
drop
in
revenue
in
the
first
quarter
this
year,
the
steepest
year-over-year
decline
since
2012.
Profits
were
cut
in
half
during
the
first
three
months
of
2024
as
Tesla
discounted
cars
and
issued
incentives
to
spur
demand.

Current
and
former
employees
told
CNBC
that
Tesla
began
laying
off
some
employees
as
early
as
January,
with
the
broader
cuts
picking
up
this
month.
They
said
some
colleagues
who
thought
their
jobs
were
safe
received
termination
notices
on
Friday
and
Tuesday.

Tesla
gave
no
warning
to
investors
about
a
pullback
in
plans
to
build
out
charging
infrastructure.
Nor
did
the
company
give
a
heads
up
to
some
charging
network
partners,
including
small
and
medium-sized
businesses
that
install
and
maintain
EV
charging
equipment
for
Tesla
at
key
locations
around
the
United
States.

Andres
Pinter,
co-CEO
of
Supercharger
network
contractor
Bullet
EV,
told
CNBC, “My
team
woke
up
to
a
sharp
kick
in
the
pants
this
morning.
Emails
we
sent
to
twenty
or
so
different
charger
construction
contacts
were
bounced
with
the
same
autoreply
reading, ‘This
email
address
is
no
longer
valid.
Any
future
emails
sent
to
this
address
will
not
be
received.'”

Pinter
said
he
thinks “It
will
take
years
for
the
other
charger
networks
to
catch
up,”
but
Tesla
abandoning
a
near-term
plan
to
expand
aggressively
in
the
U.S.
leaves
room
for
other
players.

Musk
wrote
on
X
that “Tesla
still
plans
to
grow
the
Supercharger
network,
just
at
a
slower
pace
for
new
locations
and
more
focus
on
100%
uptime
and
expansion
of
existing
locations.”

Tesla
makes
money
from
environmental
credits
and
fees
for
charging
sessions,
and
already
operates
about
one
in
three
public,
electric
vehicle
charging
stations
in
the
U.S.

Transportation
has
been
responsible
for
25%
of
carbon
emissions
from
human
activity
globally,
according
to
estimates
by
the
non-profit

International
Council
on
Clean
Transportation. While
Musk
has
more
recently
talked
up
AI
initiatives
at
Tesla,
and
its
quest
to
develop
self-driving
technology,
the
company
reiterated
in
its

annual
report
out
this
week
that
its
mission
is
to “accelerate
the
world’s
transition
to
sustainable
energy.”.

The
decline
in
Tesla’s
stock
on
Tuesday
followed
a
15%
rally
on
Monday,
the
best
trading
day
of
the
year.
The
rally
came
after
news
reports
said
a
visit
by
Musk
to
China
had
yielded
an
important
deal
with


Baidu
for
mapping
tech
that
could
power
future
self-driving
software
in
the
country
for
Tesla.

Tesla
has
long
promised
but
has
not
yet
delivered
autonomous
vehicles.

In
a
note
to
investors
out
this
week,
JL
Warren
Capital
founder
Junheng
Li
wrote
that
there
are
too
many “missing
critical
details,”
to
justify
the
gains
on
Monday. “We
believe
that
the
take
rate
and
incremental
revenue
from
the
localized
FSD–
assuming
the
similar
level
of
autonomous
as
TSLA’s
latest
v12
–
will
be
significantly
lower
in
China
than
in
the
US.”

Xpeng,
Nio
and
other
EV
makers
currently
offer
level
2
systems
that
are
given
away
to
buyers
as
an
incentive
in
China. 

WATCH:

Tesla’s
tentative
autonomous
driving
deal
in
China
is
not
enough
to
make
it ‘magnificent’
yet