Tesla CEO Elon Musk is continuing to take a hammer to the company’s existing corporate structure with more layoffs. This time Musk has let go the entire Supercharger and Policy teams, as well as the lead for the new products.
This most recent round of layoffs comes three weeks after Musk said they would be letting go more than 10% of Tesla’s global workforce, a move which led to two top executives deciding to leave the company.
The recent layoffs may be the most impactful. According to a report from The Information, which Drive Tesla has been able to independently verify, Rebecca Tinucci, the Senior Director of Tesla’s Supercharger business, and nearly her entire 500+ member team has been let go. Tinucci has been a key figure in the expansion and success of the Supercharger network, including the adoption of Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) across the industry.
Tinucci has yet to comment on being laid off, but some of her employees have taken to LinkedIn, including George Bahadue, who held the role of Sr. Manager, Site Acquisition and Business Development – Commercial Charging.
“At 3:34 AM, my nearly 8 year journey at Tesla came to an end. Though I’m still processing the news, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for the hundreds if not thousands of individuals that I have had the honor of working with throughout my Tesla career and for what we have accomplished in accelerating the worlds transition to sustainable energy,” Behadue wrote.
The layoffs extend beyond the Supercharger team, with the entire Policy team also being let go. This team used to be led by Rohan Patel, one of the two executives that announced their departure three weeks ago.
Daniel Ho, the head of new products, and his team, were also laid off.
These layoffs are shocking to say the least, but the biggest head scratcher is the dismantling of the Supercharger team. From the outside, the team had been doing incredible work in recent months and years, with the Supercharger network expanding at a record pace. Not only that, but Tesla is expecting to welcome nearly every major automaker onto the Supercharger network through their NACS deals, but with no Supercharger team, it remains to be seen how this will now be accomplished, as it will take a significant amount of time to rebuild these teams.
The impact of these layoffs may not be felt immediately. In the email announcing the layoffs, Musk said that the build out of Superchargers already under construction will continue, many of which are in Canada, but with no team to push forward those projects that were in the pipeline, it will likely be a few months until we see a drastic reduction in Supercharger openings.
The layoffs are likely not stopping here. The email from Musk also stated that starting on Tuesday morning at 10am he will be accepting the resignation of executives who have three or more employees who “don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test.” What that test entails was not included in the email.
