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At the start of the year , Tesla ’s Supercharger team was tasked with the unimaginable . “ We were on an exponential path , ” a former team member told TechCrunch , adding that the fresh target were “ super - duper crazy . ” Despite the bottlenecks that such expectation can make , “ every metre they up the measured , we met it . ”
Then , one day in April , CEO Elon Musk ax the integral air division , even though it was profitable last yr .
With more than25,000 charge portsin the U.S. and over 50,000 worldwide , the Supercharger connection is the unchallenged queen of EV firm charging . Widespread , well - maintained and tight , the internet has transformed the way the great unwashed viewed EVs , assuaging concerns about range anxiety for wide swath of the car - buying populace . But with the recent layoff , Musk vagabond a swarm over the secret infrastructure labor .
While some masses expected layoffs to hit the Supercharger sectionalization , few call up it would be eliminated .
“ We built the in effect internet in the world , ” agree to the former Tesla employee who spoke to TechCrunch . “ We were mind the ship . Nothing was frivolous . ”
It was n’t enough to hold launch the squad . Hundreds of people who were creditworthy for the construction of a linchpin for the companionship were suddenly locomote . That wipeout has industriousness watchers , shareholder and former Tesla employees wondering how it will affect EV owners and the company .
The automaker has hit a rough patch latterly , with sale not growing at their common breakneck stride . Price cuts aimed at boosting sale have affected net income , which weredown 55%in the first quarter from the same year - agone period . With Tesla getting squeezed , Musk made cut — not with a scalpel , but with a chainsaw .
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Teslastarted cutting staff , and the first troll of layoffs was n’t the last . The Supercharger air division , around500 peoplestrong , were lease go in a 2nd wave that broke at the end of April .
On Friday , Musksaidthat Tesla will drop $ 500 million on amplify and upgrade the Supercharger connection . But as insider noesis shows , it will be hard to slay that fair game without a team to oversee the work .
Before the layoffs , the Supercharger internet appeared poise to extend its jumper cable over competition .
One seed explained that Tesla had refined product and initiation of Superchargers to the point where each C. W. Post could cost as little as $ 20,000 to install , less than half the nearest competitor . A significantly more powerful rendering 4 of the Supercharger ironware , once poised for a broader rollout , now appears stall .
At the time of the layoffs , loads of Supercharger sites were in various stages of preparation and twist , according to insider information shared with TechCrunch . Some internet site that were almost ready to be open are either in oblivion or may not be open up at all , the reference say .
Tesla was previously in a strong position to win awards through the federally funded National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure ( NEVI ) program , which has $ 5 billion to disburse to work up a robust countrywide internet of dissipated chargers .
The caller had also been focalise its expansion plans on shoes with in high spirits demand , they summate . Where the federal governance was concerned in improving coverage on a certain route and demand had n’t yet materialize , Tesla ’s policy squad would prioritize winning NEVI backing for the situation , allot to the source .
“ Everything was purposeful . Everything had a target , ” one rootage told TechCrunch .
Often that meant work up Superchargers at new internet site , which are more straight to explicate . flourish subsist ace is incredibly challenging , the source said , because lease often need to be renegotiate , service program upgrade coordinated and be infrastructure ferment around , all while continuing to serve existing customers . “ Your toll per stall is exponentially higher than a fresh website . ”
Analysts have long speculate that the Supercharger connection could easily become aprofit center , much like Amazon did when it opened its swarm service to other troupe . But there , Tesla had Amazon beat : The Supercharger team was tell that the internet was profitable , the source said , even before other car manufacturer profit accession .
How the Supercharger network came to be
Tesla opened the first Supercharger station in September 2012 as the first representative of the Model S prowl the streets . former models could deport 100 kilowatt , which was a big phone number at the prison term : CHAdeMO , a competing standard used by the Nissan Leaf , maxed out at 62.5 kilowatt at the time , and the Combined Charging System ( CCS ) was still in the prototype phase angle .
The first stations opened in California , and before long more started sprouting up along highways on the East Coast , then the Midwest and Texas . Within a year , the troupe upgraded the equipment , encounter maximum power to 120 kW. And within three years , Tesla had a web thatspanned the U.S. , making coast - to - coast electrical locomotion possible . As the company enter Europe , China and other land , it added Superchargers there , too . Today , the internet supports nearly 60,000 charging stalls on four Continent .
Why the Supercharger network is considered the best
In the former years , Tesla Model S and X owners enjoyed unlimited charge at the stations — an inducement direct at winning over new customers . When the Model 3 rolled out , the company started charge new owners for charging sessions , though the process was far easier than what competitors offered . Drivers plainly had to plug the car in , and Tesla would charge a deferred payment card on filing cabinet .
Today ’s Supercharger spot support up to 250 kilowatt appoint speed . Other networks top out at 350 kW , but they are n’t nearly as dependable . Tesla says itsnetwork ’s uptime is 99.95 % , far better than its competitors . Real - creation utilization suggests that ’s not far from the trueness : A University of California – Berkeley study of EV drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area encounter that while 25 % of non - Tesla drivers experienced major problems with public chargers , only 4 % of Tesla driver did at Superchargers .
Can other EVs use Superchargers?
For over a X , supercharger were available only to Tesla owner . Because charge session had to be initiated by a handshake between the vehicle and the charger , and because billing happened behind the scenes , Tesla had tight control over who could employ them . The caller ’s proprietary hack design did n’t hurt , either .
That start to change in the fall of 2022 , when the companymade the details of its wad design availableto other automakers . ( By that point , Tesla was already using the same communications protocol as CCS when agitate . ) Then , in May 2023,Ford announcedthat it would adopt Tesla ’s fireplug purpose , get it on as the North American Charging Standard , and that its customers would pull ahead access to 12,000 supercharger across the U.S. and Canada . Soon , the floodgates opened , andGM , Rivian , Volvoand others followed wooing . Today , all major automakers selling in the U.S. have take in the NACS .
These are all the major make that have announced adoption of the NACS for future EVs :
In February , Tesla started granting automakers access . Ford was the first to gain entry , and the society pop offering subsist EV ownersfree adapter for a special time .
What’s next for the Supercharger network?
No one really knows . With future Supercharger sites in limbo , it ’s possible that the web has give its zenith , at least for the time being . Musk has said that expanding upon at new sites will continue “ at a slower tread ” and the focus will be on “ 100 % uptime and expanding upon of existing location . ” Without a team in place , all of that will be challenging , peculiarly ferment on subsist locations , which are more complex endeavors .
