Tesla cut its charging team. What now?

In making dramatic cuts to its own charging team, Tesla has left other EV-makers — and the wider charging sector — in the lurch. 

• The top line: On Tuesday, Tesla laid off its entire charging team of roughly 500 people. The decision comes in the wake of a bleak first quarter for the EV company — its net income tumbled 55%, causing founder and CEO Elon Musk to announce via company-wide email that Tesla would be cutting 10% of its headcount. The Supercharger team’s absence is likely to complicate the growth of the company’s vast public charging network, just as other automakers are in the midst of transitioning to the charging standard that Tesla itself created over a decade ago.
• The market grounding: For years, Tesla kept its vast charging infrastructure closed to other drivers, essentially prompting a divide between two charging standards: the North American Charging Standard created by Tesla, and the standardized Combined Charging System. But in late-2022, the company decided to open its Supercharger network, which is recognized widely as having the best fast-charger user experience in the United States. That announcement prompted a wave of major automakers and EV startups alike to license NACS ports for their new EVs. That migration — which started with Ford and General Motors but has expanded to also include Honda, Volvo, and Rivian, among many others — is currently underway. 
• The current take: Amaiya Khardenavis, an EV charging infrastructure analyst at Wood Mackenzie, pointed out that of the 15-odd companies that have agreed to move to the NACS, only Rivian and Ford have so far secured access to the Supercharger network. “A lot of automakers are left in limbo,” he said. “Getting access to Tesla’s network was a big part of the deal for all of the auto OEMs, and that’s going to be delayed for sure.”

Tesla’s Supercharger network dominates the industry, and is treated as a key part of the company’s success. However, Khardenavis pointed out that this market share — roughly 60% of the fast charger market, by his analysis — is the very thing that may have given Musk the confidence to cut the team, despite the potential of antagonizing Tesla’s peers. 

“They can limit more infrastructure growth in the next couple of years, and maybe get back on track after they feel that their financials are doing much better,” he said, adding that the lay-off may reflect — or foretell — a shift in strategy for Tesla: from owning and operating its own infrastructure, to instead becoming a manufacturing equipment provider. “I think the biggest question so far for everyone is, ‘is there going to be a change in technology strategy?’” 

(While the entire Supercharger team has been cut, the manufacturing team working on charging seems to still have their jobs, according to Khardenavis.)

It is so far unclear precisely what impact this cut will have on the switch to NACS that is already underway — as Khardenavis mentioned, the whole situation has yielded “more questions than answers.” Conversation on the subject, however, is already percolating on social media, including on X (the site that was known as Twitter until Tesla’s own Elon Musk took over). 

In response to a question from a user about whether the switch-over is “dead now,” William Navarro Jameson, Tesla’s former strategic charging programs lead, said the transition is set to continue because “J3400 has already taken up the torch,” meaning that the standardization body has already developed an open standard based on Tesla’s NACS. 

“But further improvements to standards and engagements across the industry will suffer,” Jameson wrote. But he added, in a separate post, that this represents an opportunity for the rest of the industry: “If Tesla is yielding the charging crown, who will step up?”

That’s a sentiment Khardenavis echoes. While the news is “pretty disappointing” for the industry as a whole, it also opens up the potential for other automakers to fill the outsized gap Tesla seems to be leaving behind. 

“We have over the last year become so dependent on one company — Tesla — for the charging experience in North America,” Khardenavis added. “Other automakers really do have a role to play moving forward.”

The lay-off included Rebecca Tinucci, who led the Supercharger group, as well as Daniel Ho, head of new products for the company, The Information was the first to report. Musk’s email to staff on Tuesday suggests that more cuts are to come.

The news comes just weeks after the departure of several others of Tesla’s top executives, including Drew Baglino, vice president for powertrain and energy engineering, and Rohan Patel, vice president for public policy and business development.