Tesla appoints new head of charging infrastructure and reveals plans for charging park

Just under six months after the Supercharger team was sacked, Tesla has now appointed Michael Snyder as the new head of its charging infrastructure. Tesla is also building a giant charging park in California with 168 charging stations and its own power generation.

Snyder, who has a degree in electrical engineering, has been with Tesla for over ten years and was most recently responsible for the Megapack division. This involves large-scale storage solutions that are used by energy suppliers, among others. Michael Snyder’s new position is called Vice President Energy and Charging. It is not yet known exactly what Snyder’s new responsibilities will be – there is no official statement from Tesla, only a short post on LinkedIn in Snyder’s profile.

At the same time, the new job title indicates what was already suspected shortly after the firing of the Supercharger team in April: Tesla is merging the previously separate areas of energy (this includes not only the Megapacks but also the Powerwall home power storage system and solar technology) and charging infrastructure. Both areas are growing significantly faster than car sales: the energy business increased its turnover by 52 per cent to almost 2.4 billion dollars in the last quarter. The service business, which primarily includes the Superchargers, also grew by 29 per cent to just under USD 2.8 billion.

The merger of the Energy and Charging divisions had already been suggested by a Reuters report in May, which we also reported on. At the same time, Tesla had rehired part of its previously dismissed Supercharger team, including Max de Zegher, Director of Tesla’s charging business in North America.

New major charging park in California

Meanwhile, the same Max de Zegher has announced Tesla’s interesting plans for a gigantic new charging park in California (see picture above) on social media. And this combines the two areas of energy and charging better than any Tesla project before.

The charging park is to be built halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on Interstate 5, a highway heavily used by electric cars. The project, for which the ground-breaking ceremony has now taken place, will combine Tesla’s various energy and charging products in an impressive way. The project is also aptly named Oasis. Located in the village of Lost Hills, a whopping 168 Supercharger charging stations are planned.

The electricity is to be generated and stored using products from Tesla’s Energy division. A solar system with an output of 11 megawatts is planned for this purpose. At the same time, ten Megapack stationary storage units with a total capacity of 39 megawatt-hours are to be installed. The charging park is scheduled to open in mid-2025.

linkedin.com, x.com (charging park), ir.tesla.com (quarterly numbers)