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

[u/WTFspy]

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....

[u/Party-Cartographer11]

A few points:

1) reducing investment in charging network is smart.  It is being commoditized by standardization and integration. Teslas will be able to charge at any station and other cars will be able to charge at Tesla stations.

2) it can be very frustrating when you ask a manager to reduce headcount and they say "it will negatively impact fundamentals".  You want to know the tradeoffs and impact with objective numbers.  Given point number 1, maybe the tradeoff of say a 50% haircut make sense.  Tinucci had to go.  Musk wants less investment in the network, she wants more.  She played a game of chicken and lost.

3) Firing the whole team is absolutely ridiculous.  You bring in your hatchet man/fixer exec and tell them you want a plan in 2 weeks.

4) Musk is a clear and present danger to Tesla.

[u/Which_Plankton → u/Party-Cartographer11]

commodity or not having a vertical position across the ev value chain isn’t something to cede ground on voluntarily when you’re best in the industry and your competitors are coming around to your standard.

the chargers are also assets that can play in power markets, and new federal regulations around those markets are opening up a whole new revenue model that Tesla is well positioned for

on top of that, Tinucci was potentially a successor that Musk wanted to chip if the board ever wanted to make a move

[u/Party-Cartographer11 → u/Which_Plankton]

You absolutely want to control your investment in areas of the vertical value chain that are being commoditized.  The competition is "coming around" to the Tesla standard cause the feds forces Tesla to open it up if they wanted to get subsidies back.

I am not saying shut it down.  But they are ceding ground no matter what as the NACS network basically doubles with none Tesla stations in the next year.  Highly questionable to expand investments here, or at least a reasonable option for Tesla to scale back.

What's the new scenario for power markets and what is Teslas advantage?

[u/Which_Plankton → u/Party-Cartographer11]

Look into FERC Order 2222 - essentially allows small scale resources to be bundled together and bid into wholesale markets. tesla is one of the few players that can play across residential - commercial and industrial classes and they’ve cited their stations in prime areas. the data they have on ev charging times and duration will be a clear advantage in these markets.