Things are going so well for Tesla that Elon Musk is scaling back charger plans, rescinding offers made to interns, and firing a lot of people including the entire supercharger team.
Hello Elon, What’s Going On?
The Wall Street Journal reports Tesla Is Pulling Back From EV Charging, and People Are Freaking Out
Tesla’s move this week to lay off much of the team responsible for creating the largest and most successful electric-vehicle charging network in the U.S. threw the industry into a state of shock and confusion.
The layoffs halted construction work at a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas. In New York, property owners in negotiations with Tesla were left hanging as discussions about adding chargers to their sites were ongoing.
After Tesla opened its charging to other cars, major automakers spent last summer announcing a switch to the Tesla-designed charging connector and signing agreements to allow their customers access to the Tesla Supercharger network.
Some of those laid off woke up Tuesday morning to find themselves locked out of the company computer system and learned about the layoffs in messages to their personal email accounts.
“Dear Employee,” the message began. “As you know, we recently announced a significant decision that impacts the entire organization, and you directly.”
The Information earlier reported that Musk, in an internal email sent late Monday, said he would dismiss everyone in the Supercharger group, and its senior director Rebecca Tinucci was leaving the company.
Andres Pinter, co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, a subcontractor building a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas for Tesla, said all 20 of its contacts at Tesla had been laid off. Pinter has received a series of bounceback emails—“This email address is no longer valid. Any future emails sent to this address will not be received”—but no other communication from the company. He halted construction work at the sites for now.
Which Comes First?
Excuse me for asking, but which comes first, increased demand for EVs or a charging network?
Slower pace? Like halting construction work at a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas and not even giving the developer a person to contact? Like everyone in the Supercharger group dismissed.
Can I ask exactly what is proceeding?
Meanwhile Elon Musk’s rampant job cuts are hitting even the lowest on the corporate ladder.
Tesla Interns Say Offers Are Getting Revoked
Bloomberg reports Tesla Interns Say Offers Are Getting Revoked Weeks Before Their Start Date
Elon Musk’s latest cost-cutting victims: Summer interns.
Tesla Inc. is rescinding offers just weeks before internships were set to start, prompting aspiring employees to take to LinkedIn to appeal to other employers to take them in.
“At 8:46am, I opened a Tesla email for flight info. By 11:25am, my internship offer was gone,” wrote Miami University student Joshua Schreiber, who said his start date was three weeks away and that he had already spent “thousands on housing.”
More than 3,000 university and community college students from around the world are hired for Tesla internships each year, according to the company’s last Impact Report. “Perform meaningful work from day one,” reads the company’s intern website.
Deliveries
On April 2, I commented Tesla’s Deliveries Drop for First Time Since 2020, It’s Demand Not Supply
Tesla’s heydays of surging demand growth is over. Competition is increasing and relative demand growth, if not absolute demand growth, is falling.
If Tesla can scale up semi production that would be a big boost. But Elon Musk has been promising 50,000 semis a year, every year for four years and has delivered a grand total of 100.
Only 35 Class 8 Truck EV Charging Stations
One of the things holding up use of electric semis is expense. A second is the number of charging stations.
Please note there are 4 Million Semis on the Road, Only 35 Class 8 Truck EV Charging Stations
Electrek says Tesla’s giga factory is only about 30% complete and Tesla hasn’t expanded the facility for years.
And now Musk is cancelling charging stations.
Tesla’s Autopilot Linked to Hundreds of Crashes in a New Safety Probe
Tesla is supposedly accelerating plans for Full Self Driving (FSD). How exactly is that supposed to work when Tesla’s Autopilot Linked to Hundreds of Crashes in a New Safety Probe
The regulator said it was closing its earlier probe and opening the new one into the adequacy of the recall remedy, which was deployed through a software update. The recall in December was among Tesla’s largest to date and involved nearly all the vehicles it had sold in the U.S.
NHTSA also compared Autopilot to similar systems deployed by auto-industry rivals, saying it found Tesla’s approach was an “industry outlier.” The agency said the Autopilot name “elicits the idea of drivers not being in control,” while other systems use terms like “assist” or “team” to imply that active supervision is required.
Elon Musk Fires 10 Percent of Tesla Workforce
On April 15, I noted Elon Musk Fires 10 Percent of Tesla Workforce, Prepares for “Next Phase of Growth”
Yes indeed.
Musk prepares for growth by firing 10 percent of the staff (I have seen reports of 20 percent), halting construction of gigafactories, laying off the entire supercharger team, scaling back, supercharger deployment, and even rescinding offers to interns.
Isn’t that how every company prepares for growth?
My conclusion: Orders have literally crashed.
Lesson in Life and a Lesson in Musk
If you believe anything Musk says from here on out, you are certifiably crazy.
As often as not, this sort of rash turnarounds signal a serious, immediate, cash flow issue, which has so far been covered up by easy credit and lax/polyanna’ish accounting (It’s not for nothing, that Toyota has been described as an accounting company specializing in accounting for the business of building and marketing cars.)
Realistic losses at the Supercharger division may (just may, I have no insight) have been utterly enormous, yet could have been effectively covered up by near infinite funding at every level. When starry eyed groupies line up trillions deep to throw themselves your way, even big leaks can easily fly under the radar.
Musk’s recent trip to China, may well have been to beg on his knees….. Baidu gets access to all and everything, and who knows what. Tesla gets a line on some cheaper batteries, plus a pile of underhand credit. Hence get to stay afloat a little longer bilking true-believers. Musk is, for good or bad, a risk taker. A gambler. And like all gamblers, he knows that as long as he can stay to play another hand, that will be the winning one, erasing all previous losses. Or in “finance” terms: All problems are just problems of liquidity. Never of solvency…..
In later news, Elon has sold all his holdings, and in his spaceship, returned to his home galaxy.
I guess this settles the question about whether he’s a genius or not…
He still has an army of simps. Simps never give up on you.
Has anyone else noticed that after Elon bought X/Twitter, he has fallen from Grace and now all we read are BAD NEWS items about him and NOTHING ELSE.
He was the GOLDEN BOY before. NO LONGER. The super-Libs have turned on him.
Apparently when you start insulting your core group of consumers they don’t want to purchase your products anymore (see: Disney, etc.).
when do they close all their facilities in America?
Tesla is likely going to struggle going forward. They no longer have a competitive advantage over Chinese EV companies. Subsidies for buyers have disappeared or are disappearing. They are running out of early adopters. And most importantly; they are not making PHEVs; which is where the growth in auto sales will be for the rest of this decade. Perhaps they will partner with one of the legacy auto makers to co-produce a PHEV.
Regardless of what happens to Tesla, sales of EVs will not go to zero. Though the days of rapid sales growth may be over. That rapid growth will now be in PHEVs.
For those here who think EVs are a scam, and sales will go to zero, let me know how you are investing to take advantage of your opinion. I might participate if you can provide a convincing argument.
I’m glad you asked Papa. Personally, I believe the cost to manufacture, maintain and insure autos will only go up because we won’t have enough skilled workers so the obvious places to invest for profits are in insurance companies. Manufacturers will have a hard time finding good skilled labor and will have to pay dearly, the same for service stations and dealerships.
The other two potential investments will be the auto parts dealers like Genuine Auto Parts or Advanced Auto Parts as more people decide to try to fix the vehicles themselves. An innovative business model would be to have a self service station where you can drive in and use all the tools and lifts but do all the labor yourself with the help of YouTube videos. Of course, the best thing to do is not own a car at all but that’s only for smart savvy people that know how to do the math.
I don’t get why you think investing in insurance companies is a good place for profits based on manufacturing/maintenance costs increasing.
Yes, insurance costs go up but they literally pay out all that money in claims. The industry is highly regulated and watched by the government and profit margins are well known (practically legislated by government) and there is always the risk of a black swan event that crushes profits (the storm in Houston a few years back that drowned the city caused millions of cars to be written off resulting in high number of insurance claims).
Unless you mean you the plan is to buy the stocks for sweet dividends rather than price appreciation.
“don’t get why you think investing in insurance companies is a good place for profits”
It’s called research and analysis. But to be fair, everyone has a different investment journey and purpose so not all investments are for everyone. I expect both growth and dividends which is why I am investing in insurance companies except health care.
Big pharma, too?
batteries are a garbage technology… the achilles heel of ALL green tech.
“green” + batteries = not green at all
end of story.
Tesla and the EV-only vehicle designs are a scam, and they are finished.
Proof? Go buy a used Tesla… LULZ.
Everything you said here is spot on.
I don’t think there is any way EV sales are going to zero despite what others here think. They still make a lot of sense as a 2nd car for people in urban areas doing daily commutes + taxis/Uber. That’s easily 30% of the population so reaching 30% adoption rate over the next decade or two remains very possible.
Cost of new vehicles in general remains a BIG problem. They’ve increased something 50% in 4 years. The Covid lack of manufacturing effect is gone. But what isn’t gone is the fact that auto makers figured out there are no/low margins in base model vehicles (esp cars) so they stopped making those entirely and instead only built and offered the luxury models with tons of gadgets and features no one really needs because it created high profit margins and gets all the auto reviewers gushing when they review the fully tricked out models starting at 60K.
Then combine that with the fact the free Covid money has also stopped and it’s a recipe for disaster for the auto industry in general. If any manufacturer was to offer a cheap entry level vehicle (ICE/PHEV/EV) in the 25K range with decent options I suspect they’d sell a ton of vehicles. That was going to be the Chinese till Biden said no dice. That’s what I’d be looking for if you wanted to figure out which manufacturer is going to be a winner in the short term.
“Regardless of what happens to Tesla, sales of EVs will not go to zero.” Really? Lol. As sales of EVs continues to plummet, there will be fewer and fewer charging stations. This will encourage the sales of EVs to plummet more. Which will result in fewer and fewer charging stations. It’s a death spiral. When there are no more charging stations, why again would anyone buy an EV? To only be able to charge it at home? And why will there be fewer charging stations? Because they require techs to maintain. When someone cuts the cable for the little bit of copper in it, it costs thousands of dollars to replace, unlike a gas line, which no one wants anyway and which costs far less to replace. Regardless, they have issues and the industry needs techs to maintain them. As demand goes down, fewer and fewer will be repaired.
Next big business opportunity –
Diesel powered electric generator on a trailer to tow behind your EV.
There is one last thing that is a useful albeit unusual economic indicator. The Army and the Air Force have turned optimistic on reaching their recruiting targets for the first time in a long time. The Navy is lagging but it always does. Either a wave of patriotism has swept the country or young people are suddenly needing a job now.
Lower (“modify”) standards and most any quota can be met. Especially note Viet Nam and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali, wikipedia.com), drafted twice. ❤️ Mark 12:30-31
Looking at the market’s reactions to the latest companies’ results as well as economic indicators leads me to believe that perhaps finally we have the economic pullback that we have all been waiting for. If true then a drastic cutback in costs is a measure I whole-heartedly approve of. Tesla is not the sole company cutting expenses and its workforce. Very many across the board are doing the same thing. The weakness is not limited to one sector. Try selling a house now in the formerly “hot” markets. You can’t.
Doug78, I think that you spotted the real key to what’s going on. The problem with economics as a “science” is that it uses lagging data. Therefore economists must call a recession after the fact. But those of us who live in real time see it first hand.
Related to this, is it possible that for most buyers of an EV, they are novelties and toys (2nd or 3rd vehicles, perhaps for virtue signaling) and not primary (or solo) means of personal transportation? If so, the potential market is smaller than has been predicted.
But what do I know? I’m not an economist.
“The problem with economics as a “science” is that it uses lagging data.”
The problem with economics as a science, is the same as the problem with dance as a science: Neither is a science. At all.
Economics is deductive logic, at most approaching (very) simple math. Dance is an art.
Pretending they are science, don’t make either so. All it does, is demonstrate that those doing so, are clueless.
It’s pointless building those chargers in Texas. The fire ants absolutely LOVE those things! They will devour those big transformers like candy. it’s the shellac insulation on the coils. Yum!Yum!
Jeff – you need to sell your EVs NOW! The tide is turning … the MSM is beginning to tell the herd that EVs are a disaster…
This was always going to happen because EVs are nothing more than hopium to convince the herd that we are transitioning … that the future is bright and wonderful…
But it’s all fake … and they never wanted too many people to buy EVs cuz that would crash the electricity grid.
So now they are dialling back… Tesla IS going to ZERO.
Many EVs will lose up to 12% of their charge capacity by six years. Some may lose even more.
Yet the cost of replacing an EV battery is astonishingly high, our research found.
In some cases, the cost of a replacement battery is as much as £40,000. For certain EVs, the cost of replacing the battery could be 10 times the value of the vehicle itself on the second-hand market.
That means used EVs have a limited lifespan — which makes them a bigger and bigger risk as the years go by.
Research into EV batteries is yet to be conclusive and the second-hand EV market is new, given the first popular EVs were rolled off the production line in 2009.
Last night, one motoring expert said customers should be wary of buying a used electric car beyond its warranty (typically eight years), as after that timespan there is no easy way of measuring how much the battery will degrade before it needs replacing.
This may mean you end up needing to pay for an expensive new battery.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/mailplus/article-13367571/The-used-electric-car-timebomb-Tens-thousands-EVs-soon-impossible-sell-batteries-wont-affected.html
More on this breaking story here https://dailysceptic.org/2024/05/01/ev-battery-timebomb/
You forgot –
EVs cause warts, obesity and impotence.
And other stuff too numerous to list…
EV ownership is a symptom of stupidity.
He no longer needs a proprietary charging network since tesla standard is now default
Let the government or BP build it and deal with any issues is likely the plan
Short the pig to zero
Well I guess things aren’t so bad the he’s eliminating toilet paper and janitorial services.
Things are going so well for Tesla that Elon Musk is scaling back charger plans, rescinding offers made to interns, and firing a lot of people including the entire supercharger team.
> Sounds a bit drastic, don’t you think? So in the last 5 years the stock hit (H=$381.59 / L=$16.2), Hmm.. I wish I bought it in 2019!
– Hello Elon, What’s Going On?
> Let’s see, the largest “World Wide” recession in most people’s lifetimes, Highest Inflation many people have ever heard of, and certainly never seen, a leadership in charge that works inside a self made bubble of delusion, prioritizing all else over the goodness of the American Citizens, Spending Taxpayers Money on Unwanted Wars, etc…
– The Wall Street Journal reports: Tesla Is Pulling Back From EV Charging, and People Are Freaking OutTesla’s move this week to lay off much of the team responsible for creating the largest and most successful electric-vehicle charging network in the U.S. threw the industry into a state of shock and confusion.
> What the heck are they supposed to do? Spend Money like the Federal Government? They would be out of Business in. NO time, without Taxpayers Money to Bail them out all the time. This is what happens when a Government gets out of control, and Musk is Way Smarter Than That!!!
– The layoffs halted construction work at a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas. In New York, property owners in negotiations with Tesla were left hanging as discussions about adding chargers to their sites were ongoing. Andres Pinter, co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, Tesla Interns Say Offers Are Getting Revoked. Bloomberg reports Tesla Interns Say Offers Are Getting Revoked Weeks Before Their Start DateElon Musk’s latest cost-cutting victims: Summer interns. Tesla Inc. is rescinding offers just weeks before internships were set to start, prompting aspiring employees to take to LinkedIn to appeal to other employers to take them in.“At 8:46am, I opened a Tesla email for flight info. By 11:25am, my internship offer was gone,” wrote Miami University student Joshua Schreiber, who said his start date was three weeks away and that he had already spent “thousands on housing.” More than 3,000 university and community college students from around the world are hired for Tesla internships each year, according to the company’s last Impact Report. “Perform meaningful work from day one,” reads the company’s intern website. On April 2, I commented Tesla’s Deliveries Drop for First Time Since 2020, It’s Demand Not Supply Tesla’s heydays of surging demand growth is over. Competition is increasing and relative demand growth, if not absolute demand growth, is falling. If Tesla can scale up semi production that would be a big boost. But Elon Musk has been promising 50,000 semis a year, every year for four years and has delivered a grand total of 100. Only 35 Class 8 Truck EV Charging Stations One of the things holding up use of electric semis is expense. A second is the number of charging stations. Please note there are 4 Million Semis on the Road, Only 35 Class 8 Truck EV Charging Stations Electrek says Tesla’s giga factory is only about 30% complete…
> See above, and learn what a damn recession is.
– My conclusion: Orders have literally crashed. Lesson in Life and a Lesson in Musk If you believe anything Musk says from here on out, you are certifiably crazy.
> MY conclusion: Orders have literally continued to crash.
Lesson in Life: Learn what a Recession is, truly understand what a recession is, and when one comes, pull back, lower cost, close offices Etc.
>> Oh, and if you ever get a chance to Meet Musk, do yourself a favor and consider it the “True Gift” that it would be. If you ever get to speak to him, make sure you “Prep” like it’s an “Exam on Life” and enjoy the heck out of Musk, and Each & Every Word He Speaks!!!
He’s pivoting the company from vehicles to AI/AV because EVs are becoming commodities. There isn’t enough money in them to justify his PE multiples.
Charging infrastructure is important but does even less for the stock.
AI/AV have unlimited multiples, so that’s where the spending goes.
I don’t know who’s downvoting your astute observation. I suspect there are lots of Musk acolytes here who are hiding in shame, but are still loyal to their dear leader.
So, no additional charging stations. What about the existing ones, will they just be left to rot? All the people who know how to maintain them have been laid off.
Worldcom / Enron, Countrywide / Lehman brothers, and now Tesla / (???).
In the words of Peter from office space, I hope your layoffs and firings go well.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kMvtrM_jhVE
We are witnessing, in real time, the collapse of the EV bubble.
Progressive Bubble.
Makes me wonder how many of those pro-Palestinian protestors drive EVs.
This is funny. I’m from Texas and knew Elon would fail when trying his progressive technology there. The car dealership lobby tried to keep Tesla out of Texas. This will make them grin from ear to ear. Texans love their gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. Conservative states are anti-change and anti-everything that already isn’t established.
They just dont get it. Forcing crap on people is always a disaster. From us not wanting it to govt subsidies it’s just a huge mess.
Then there should be no problem stopping the tax breaks to the oil companies right ?
“Forcing crap on people is always a disaster.”
Like using federal law to force people to use a tranny’s preferred pronoun.
Yes.As well as forcing people to pay protection money in some printshop’s favored scrip.
Recession?
The US is still burning a trillion after few months so the economy is doing EXTREMELY well and this can go on forever – so there will never be another recession.
What is happening is the herd was force fed EVs by the Ministry of Truth… and the herd got played into buying EVs — not the entire herd but enough of to spread the word that EVs are bullshit… inconvenient … expensive to purchase and maintain… that they are a hassle to charge… that resale values are horrifying …
Basically word of mouth is spreading and the hype is imploding as it crashes into reality.
People do NOT want EVs…
The legacy manufacturers are losing billions on their EV line ups.. and as we have seen Tesla sales are now falling.
This is a doom loop. As manufacturers slash prices to dump EV inventory — used EV prices will continue to collapse — those befuddled idiots who are still considering buying an EV get frightened off realizing they will get crushed when the go to sell their cars… so they don’t buy an EV… manufacturers have to further slash price to unload these unwanted jalopies…
Tesla can see the writing on the wall… that is why they are now halting their charger expansion… what point is there in wasting money on these stations when people don’t want EVs?
This move demonstrates that they know they are going to ZERO.
Jeff — feel free to discuss and let me know if I have any of this wrong.
“This is a doom loop. As manufacturers slash prices to dump EV inventory — used EV prices will continue to collapse — those befuddled idiots who are still considering buying an EV get frightened off realizing they will get crushed when the go to sell their cars… so they don’t buy an EV… manufacturers have to further slash price to unload these unwanted jalopies…”
You just defined a recession or an EV recession anyway 😉
Nah… it’s not a recession … it is the beginning of the end of EVs… the only remaining EVs will be golf carts
im gonna get me a used Tesla on the cheap soon, and LS-Swap it!!
Just wait a little longer and you’ll be able to get one for free.
Tesla is very obviously going to implode.
You’d have to be really dumb to buy a Tesla — when you can see they are abandoning the charging network. Really really really dumb. Like severely mentally retarded dumb.
I heard that Jeff Green has been put on suicide watch.
I wonder how Fan Boy Wolfstreet will spin this story.
They were never meant to be driven beyond a urban area with chargers.
Yes of course… they were always intended to be toy cars… you buy a Tesla to drive to the organic fair trade coffee shop to show off your green creds (ignoring the source of the electricity that charged your toy car)…..
(I am wondering – are their Tesla groooopies? You know – hot green delusional chicks who dig Tesla drivers and are willing to hop in the back seat with them????)
Then for real trips you own a real vehicle .. an ICE vehicle….
Hahahaha… this is beyond ridiculous.
Fortunately … generally when things make no sense – they stop. This is one of those times
I think another reason tesla sales were huge is the tax savings for buyers and the ability to expense the vehicle via lease if you are an LLC. If you commute a lot within a metro area, they make some sense but a bunch of people overpaid now that prices are cratering.
“you buy a Tesla to drive to the organic fair trade coffee shop to show off your green creds”
Fast Eddy, you’re 100% correct. And now we know the number of wealthy woke posers out there, they equal the number of EV cars sold. Ergo, the market is now saturated?
EV’s are a scam. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
If Biden wins, then you are wrong 🙂
Biden wins only by fraud. Just like the last election. So, if Biden “wins,” KGB is correct.