Supercharger Team Layoffs Likely To Result in About 5% Fewer New Tesla DCFC Charging Ports
One of the biggest stories in the EV charging industry so far in 2024 was when Tesla let go the entire (apparently) Supercharger team at the end of April. Social media was on fire discussing the layoffs and potential impact, and media coverage was nonstop and rampant with predictions that the sky would fall on DCFC deployments by Tesla. I personally fielded dozens of requests from reporters for several weeks following the news, who were trying to make sense of the move by Elon Musk.
The decision to fire Rebecca Tinucci, leader of the charging team at Tesla, by Elon Musk appeared to be a move by the mercurial and unpredictable CEO of Tesla, to set an example when someone doesn’t follow orders. We wanted to understand the actual impact on Supercharger deployments in the US since May. Our Paren analysis of AFDC DCFC charging station and port data suggests that in fact — as one Tesla employee told me — the layoffs were “just a blip on the radar screen.”
As of October 31, Tesla has opened 580 fewer ports in 2024 versus the same period in 2023. That is in essence, close to one month’s of new ports in 2023, which averaged 527 new ports per month. On the DCFC charging station side, Tesla has opened 346 DCFC stations year to date (YTD) in 2024, versus 377 YTD in 2023, or 31 fewer stations and roughly three fewer per month.
When looking at the trailing three months (August through October), Tesla opened 1,620 (an average per month of 540) ports in 2024, versus 1,754 (an average per month of 585) over the same three months in 2023. This is 134 fewer in 2024 for the three months, or an average of 45 fewer per month. Tesla opened 117 new charging stations in the three-month period of August through October 2024, versus a nearly identical 118 in 2023. From a ports per station perspective, Tesla added an average of 1 less port per station during this period — 14.9 in 2023 versus 13.8 in 2024.
Interestingly, when excluding the post supercharger team layoffs three months of May, June, and July, you’ll see that Tesla has opened more ports in 2024 at 3,566 versus 3,525 during the same seven-month period in 2023. The monthly average for these same seven months is 509 in 2024, versus 507 in 2023.
For the full year 2024, we expect Tesla to end up opening about 5,800-6,000 new Supercharger ports, versus the 6,329 opened in 2023, or drop of +/- 5%. As for Supercharger stations, we estimate Tesla to open 435 in 2024, a drop of about 40 new stations from the 473 in 2023.
What Does it All Mean?
It appears that the biggest impact of the Supercharger team layoffs was in fact on the human side, with hundreds of people losing their jobs. We do know that many people were rehired shortly after the layoffs, which is a key reason Tesla seems to be back on track. But we also know many people have yet to recover from the layoffs and find new work. Others, however, have found new jobs both inside and outside the industry, while some have taken the entrepreneurial route, and become consultants, contractors, or have started new businesses.
There may be other outcomes from the layoffs that might take a while before we see the impact. These might include things such as a delay or issues with the rollout of NACS adapters, partnerships, and the integration with the automakers that are adopting the NACS connector. The recent recall of faulty NACS adapters that were provided to Ford by Tesla may or may not have been a partial result from not enough people on the team to manage suppliers, ensure quality, and to test these new adapters. And we will probably never know.
But for everyone else — including drivers of Tesla EVs and other EVs that have or will have NACS adapters, and the ability to charge at nearly 18,000 superchargers in the US — the impact could simply be the delay in the opening by several months of about 30 or so Supercharger stations in the US. That is not an insignificant number of charging stations, but with several other charging networks ramping up deployments, including IONNA, Mercedes-Benz, Pilot, Love’s, and others — there will likely be minimal impact on EV drivers looking to find a place to charge.
By Loren McDonald - Chief Analyst, Paren
