Tesla allegedly fires the entire Supercharger team

Following the layoffs of around ten per cent of Tesla’s global workforce, there are increasing indications that the US electric car manufacturer will further downsize. According to a report by The Information, which Reuters and other media picked up, it will first and foremost affect the Supercharger division. The portal cites an internal email from TMusk to senior employees.

The Information reports that Rebecca Tinucci, Senior Director of the Supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, Director of Vehicle Programmes and New Product Initiatives, among others, will be laid off – along with all their employees, including around 500 people from the Supercharger team. “Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction,” Musk wrote in the email, the report says.

The latest redundancies have not been officially confirmed. On Linkedin, Rebecca Tinucci still lists her position as “Sr Director of EV Charging at Tesla.” However, Jeroen van Tilburg’s move to Ionity can be reinterpreted in light of the latest information. Until recently, the top manager was still responsible for Tesla’s charging business in Europe, but switched to Ionity in mid-March as Michael Hajesch’s successor as CEO.

Musk’s email to managers states that Tesla will continue to build some new Superchargers and complete those currently under construction. What consequences the move – should it be confirmed – will have on the further expansion of the system is not yet known.

But back to the further downsizing at Tesla: according to the report, a large part of the public relations team under former manager Rohan Patel is also being fired. Musk is quoted as saying that Tesla must take an “absolutely hard core” approach to downsizing and that managers whose subordinates “don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” will also be relieved of their duties. Musk is increasing the pressure on his managers.

It has been known for several weeks that there is trouble brewing under the Tesla roof. The company presented declining sales and business figures for the first quarter. Shortly before this, it was announced that Tesla was making more than 14,000 employees redundant at short notice, including entire teams working on “critical projects.” At the same time, several top managers resigned. Tesla’s Head of Engineering Drew Baglino confirmed his resignation in a social media post, as did the aforementioned former Head of Policy Rohan Patel. According to the Electrek portal, Anthony Thurston, Senior Manager of Cathode Materials & Manufacturing, also had to leave.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has so far only commented publicly on the planned job cuts in a tweet: “About every five years, we need to reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth,” he wrote on X in the middle of the month.

theinformation.com (paywall) via reuters.com, electrek.co