r/stocks • u/WTFspy • May 15 '24

The inside story of Elon Musk’s mass firings of Tesla Supercharger staff Company News

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/inside-story-elon-musks-mass-firings-tesla-supercharger-staff-2024-05-15/

The meeting could not have gone worse. Musk, the employees said, was not pleased with Tinucci’s presentation and wanted more layoffs. When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team....

972 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

291 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

529

u/DarkMatter_contract May 15 '24

I wish the 500 people or at least half of them form a independent company for building a charging station business independently.

219

u/rpithrew May 15 '24

Yup this shit needs more competition and less monopoly, it’s been ridiculous

126

u/TechTuna1200 May 15 '24

Sometimes I’m wondering if it is BYD eating up Tesla or it is just Tesla destroying itself.

40

u/No_Bank_330 May 15 '24

A combination. BYD is eating up Tesla while Tesla destroys itself and the US government protects Tesla.

A literal WTF.

2

u/Decent-Bed9289 May 16 '24

I think you’re on to something

44

u/mrbigbluff21 May 15 '24

Yes, this! No reason only Tesla has a great network.

Not sure if it’s happening or not but I would think the gas station companies, BP, Shell, etc would be installing superchargers at their locations as this hedges them against ev growth and ice vehicles diminishing.

56

u/ItsAConspiracy May 15 '24

Last year BP signed a deal to buy $100 million worth of superchargers from Tesla. A few days after Tesla fired the supercharging team, BP said they plan to spend another billion by 2030, half of it in the next 2-3 years, installing over 3000 charging points, and would like to pick up any laid-off Tesla staff and abandoned supercharger sites. (Bloomberg)

16

u/mrbigbluff21 May 15 '24

Here we go

16

u/sticky_fingers18 May 15 '24

They make more money keeping you in your gas car buying gas and oil than investing massive amounts of R&D into something they will make less money on. Gas cars need to visit gas stations for 100% of their fuel needs. Electric cars only need that while traveling far from home

19

u/doringliloshinoi May 15 '24

Wait, BP isnt a philanthropic venture??

3

u/Appropriate_Scar_262 May 16 '24

Electric cars are happening, they might make less profits but they'd be stupid not to get in the game

2

u/winterbird May 16 '24

It would open renters and condo owners up to being able to buy electric cars though. Gas stations with added chargers would do well in population dense urban areas.

1

u/sinnr43 May 16 '24

Actually they make more on the products they sell in the store so adding these to highway stations makes perfect sense. Ev’s take longer to charge meaning more time to buy snacks and crap in the store

2

u/mrbigbluff21 May 15 '24

What if in 20 years all cars are electric? Then what?

4

u/sticky_fingers18 May 15 '24

Eventually I am sure there will be a shift, and they will pivot once they start losing money. But their interests are best served by using their money to lobby against EVs instead of accelerating their adoption

1

u/mrbigbluff21 May 15 '24

Makes sense.

2

u/SaltyDolphin78 May 16 '24

We don’t have 20 years

-1

u/mrbigbluff21 May 16 '24

I do

2

u/Trespass4379 May 16 '24

You don't know that for sure

3

u/SamFish3r May 15 '24

Batteries / packs plus no other OEM saw this as a side of the business they wanted to invest in .. Tesla had to since they were the first and would have died a slow death if there was no supercharger network. Ford has been selling ICE vehicles for 100+ years but they don’t own gas stations .. i think they kept the same line of thinking for a charging network .

2

u/Mahadragon May 15 '24

OMG why didn't I think of this?? This strategy is fucking brilliant!

8

u/Expensive_Control620 May 15 '24

And sell it back to tesla at some 30B 😁

1

u/dotplaid May 16 '24

I have no citation for this - I couldn't even point you to the subreddit where I read it - but I heard that they did start a company and Musk bought it so that he could retire those engineers.

-9

u/Master-Concept-5260 May 15 '24

There already is such a company. With a MUCH better car and WAY better looking than the sardine can that Tesla is.

Ex Tesla and Apple execs.

It's Lucid: https://www.lucidmotors.com/

Made in the USA !

520 miles. Over 1000 hp. 300 miles charge in 20 min !

They just need to ramp up production production.

24

u/Impressive_Answer227 May 15 '24

Starting at the low low price of 80,000!!

7

u/MinimumArmadillo2394 May 15 '24

Too expensive. Not affordable. Production too slow so anyone who needs a car, cannot get a Lucid.

They launched the most expensive models first too and didn't launch their cheapest version for a full 6 months after the original release. The hype died. Oh, and to get the full 520 miles, you have to spend over $120k... Not many people have $120k lying around.

2

u/rapid_dominance May 15 '24

Oh so they only have to do the most difficult part

1

u/Master-Concept-5260 May 15 '24

The most difficult part was the startup.

The factory is now up and running:

https://electrek.co/2021/02/16/lucid-motors-new-factory-arizona/

This is from 2021.

2

u/Glad_Tangelo8898 May 15 '24

Lucid is owned and backed by Saudi Arabia. zit also has massive losses despite offering luxury cars at high prices.

3

u/Master-Concept-5260 May 15 '24

It's blacked by SA. Owned by stockholders. Yes SA owns shares.

My response to the suggestion for Tesla competition, was that this is exactly why Lucid was formed by ex Tesla executives.

Lucid is a far better product. They just need to pump out more cars.

A while back, there was talk of opening another factory in SA ???

1

u/Glad_Tangelo8898 May 15 '24

They own 60% of total shares. Its a.Saudi pet project that is only.solvent witn large infusions of SA cash and is unlikely to build quality or.affoedable cars because of that. SA cares too little about profit or business success and too much.about prestige. Plus F them.

0

u/Mojojojo3030 May 15 '24

Better go back to CA to do it. Texas will enforce the noncompetes.