Former employee says Supercharger team already had more work than it could handle before layoffs
- A former Tesla employee says the Supercharger team relied on overworked employees before layoffs
- Now that the team has been gutted, the laid-off worker predicts more problems will arise
- The problems can occur when the network is busier than ever
After a difficult quarter and facing a difficult future, Tesla has initiated what its CEO Elon Musk calls “absolutely tough” staff and cost cuts. This has led to the company laying off the team in charge of its Supercharger network, and the fired employees believe this is bad news for users.
The problem is particularly concerning because electric vehicles from other manufacturers can use superchargers. Despite being considered America’s most reliable charging network, it relied on a team of employees who describe themselves as overworked.
Read: After Laying Off Supercharger Team, What Will Tesla Do With $17 Million in Federal Charging Grants?
A laid-off worker who was part of Tesla’s charging station diagnostics and repair team spoke to InsideEVs on condition of anonymity and said that despite being well staffed, the Supercharger team was struggling to handle the entire workload and that he had to be available 19 to 24 hours a day.
“We couldn’t keep up. And now the network is even bigger,” said the employee. “You know what? There are even more consumers. There may be many more problems.”
The former Tesla employee said that after these layoffs, “quality will deteriorate” and that customers will soon see Tesla struggling to fix charging issues in a timely manner.
The Supercharger network includes 50 million stations, making it the largest fast-charging network for electric vehicles in the world. On average, each location handles about 320 charging sessions per day, a number that is expected to increase as more non-Tesla electric vehicles gain access to the network.
And confidence in Tesla’s ability to navigate after these layoffs is low, as the anonymous worker said he didn’t even know if he would receive something as basic as severance pay. The former Tesla employee said there has been “radio silence” since he was informed of his termination, adding, “Nobody knows anything.” Even some of the other executives who were more affected than me. You have no idea.”
