Tesla Lays off Charging and New Vehicle Development Teams: Report
Tesla’s lineup isn’t getting any younger, and its charging network is about to see serious activity from new users.
Tesla is in a slide as its sales fall, plans for its highly anticipated $25,000 entry-level EV have reportedly been scrapped, and its autonomy program fizzles. Now things look set to worsen further, as CEO Elon Musk has reportedly dismissed not only Tesla's charging network team, but also gutted its new vehicle development program. They're only some of the many mounting factors that look to threaten the very foundations of Tesla's business.
Tesla's newest round of layoffs were reportedly initiated by Musk in an email to senior managers, as reported by The Information. Musk is reportedly trying to counterbalance Tesla's sales slumps with "hard-core" job cuts, which target multiple crucial executives and the teams under them.
Among the reported layoffs are Rebecca Tinucci, Senior Director of EV Charging (overseeing the Supercharger program) and Daniel Ho, director for new vehicles and new product introduction. Everyone under both executives, which total around 500 people in charging alone, is also reportedly being shown the door. The public policy team formerly headed by departed exec Rohan Patel is also reportedly being dismissed.
The wholesale scrapping of both new product pipelines and charging systems development would be an alarming move for any automaker, but it's especially significant for the struggling Tesla. Outside of the lukewarmly received Cybertruck, its product portfolio is aging with no signs of renewal.
The supposed cancelation of its more affordable EV leaves it without any evident direction outside of its ostensible Robotaxi project—though Tesla's vehicular autonomy technologies have been at a functional standstill for years. Musk has famously forecasted complete autonomy as a year out for many years in a row, while the company has both significantly lowered the cost of entry to its "Full Self-Driving" assist technology and given away free trials to customers as of late, to goose revenue.
Between the repeated layoffs and disinvestment in new products and charging—at a time when its network figures to be under more stress than ever before—it seems Tesla is preparing for much worse than a temporary EV market downturn.
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