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I got out when Elon Musk fired the whole Supercharger team. That was roughly a year after the entire North American Auto industry standardized on the Superchar

I got out when Elon Musk fired the whole Supercharger team. That was roughly a year after the entire North American Auto industry standardized on the Supercharger standard, the Supercharger Network opened to non-tesla cars, and they were poised to expand. The rational thing to do if Elon Musk didn't want to be in the charging business would be to spin out the Supercharger Network as a different company. Instead, he fired the entire team over a petty argument. That was the first clear case of mismanagement that I saw.

oskarkk 1y ago
Since that happened (a year ago) the Supercharger network grew from 6473 to 7377 stations, and from 59596 to 70228 connectors (numbers from Q2 2025 earnings release), so it's not like they stopped expanding the network after that layoff.
- nativeit 1y ago
  I suppose if growth is all that matters, that's probably good news. It's probably worth mentioning a good chunk of those will have been the ongoing projects with current stock. On the other hand, if long-term maintenance and optimizations for this absolutely critical new infrastructure are even a little bit of a priority? Then it's still unlikely the "smart" move to eliminate the entire department. Also carrying around suitcases full of designer drugs is maybe a bad sign for CEO, staying up all night playing video games, and working--charitably speaking--"part time" are all rather uninspiring choices...
- gwbas1c 1y ago
  They rehired the team. Basically, when Tesla's stock started to dip, he went on a cost-cutting rampage. The head of Superchargers made a proposal to grow, and Elon got angry and fired the whole team. It's one of those moments where, if Elon got angry, and then waited to cool off before doing anything rash, it would have been forgivable.
pfannkuchen 1y ago
As a user I do feel like the supercharger network could be a lot better than it is. Is it possible that some internal goals were missed in a big way? Also I guess I assumed they hired a new team. Did they not?
- lawn 1y ago
  They panicked and tried to rehire the team...

oskarkk 1y ago

Since that happened (a year ago) the Supercharger network grew from 6473 to 7377 stations, and from 59596 to 70228 connectors (numbers from Q2 2025 earnings release), so it's not like they stopped expanding the network after that layoff.

nativeit 1y ago
I suppose if growth is all that matters, that's probably good news. It's probably worth mentioning a good chunk of those will have been the ongoing projects with current stock. On the other hand, if long-term maintenance and optimizations for this absolutely critical new infrastructure are even a little bit of a priority? Then it's still unlikely the "smart" move to eliminate the entire department. Also carrying around suitcases full of designer drugs is maybe a bad sign for CEO, staying up all night playing video games, and working--charitably speaking--"part time" are all rather uninspiring choices...
gwbas1c 1y ago
They rehired the team. Basically, when Tesla's stock started to dip, he went on a cost-cutting rampage. The head of Superchargers made a proposal to grow, and Elon got angry and fired the whole team. It's one of those moments where, if Elon got angry, and then waited to cool off before doing anything rash, it would have been forgivable.

pfannkuchen 1y ago

As a user I do feel like the supercharger network could be a lot better than it is. Is it possible that some internal goals were missed in a big way? Also I guess I assumed they hired a new team. Did they not?

lawn 1y ago
They panicked and tried to rehire the team...