Tesla rehiring Supercharger staff after firing global team last month – report
Staff working on the Tesla Supercharger network have begun to be re-hired – amid criticism from customers and investors – after Elon Musk dismissed the team two weeks ago.
Elon Musk has begun rehiring engineers and executives behind Tesla Superchargers two weeks after the 500-member team behind the global fast-charging network was laid off.
In a stunning about-face – which the US car giant has billed as an internal "restructure" – news agency Bloomberg reports Tesla has rehired Max de Zegher, the company's director of charging in North America.
Mr de Zegher was one of the executives laid off in the Supercharger team led by Rebecca Tinucci, now-former senior director of charging – at the same time as Tesla's new-model launch team was also dissolved.
Bloomberg says it does not know how many other laid-off Supercharger team members have been rehired alongside Mr de Zegher.
The re-hire is the latest response to widespread criticism of Tesla's decision to dismiss the team behind Superchargers, which have been identified as a lucrative revenue source for the US car giant as it opens the network to electric vehicles from other brands globally.
Shortly after the news of the layoffs broke two weeks ago, CEO Elon Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) that Tesla "still plans to grow the Supercharger network," but at a "slower pace for new locations" to focus on "uptime and expansion of existing locations."
"[Supercharger] sites under construction will be completed and we will add additional Superchargers anywhere where there are gaps," he said.
Late last week, Musk said on X "Tesla will spend well over $500m expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.
"That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher," he said.
Since 29 April – a day before news of the Supercharger team layoffs was published – Tesla's share price has dropped by 11 per cent.
In Australia, Tesla said in an email to customers on Friday it would complete new Supercharger stations currently in construction, and that the network would "continue to be expanded".
However – crucially – it did not specify if Superchargers in the planning stages, but yet to begin construction would go ahead.
Bloomberg highlights that this is not the first time Musk has made a controversial decision in regards to staff – and performed a U-turn days later.
In 2019, the executive announced Tesla would close most of its showrooms and move vehicle sales almost exclusively online, before backtracking 10 days later after landlords refused to let Tesla out of its leases, Bloomberg reports.
