Tesla Rehires Supercharger Employees After April Layoffs
After speculations that Tesla might be in a tight spot due to declining sales and some cash problems and the subsequent firing of their Supercharger network CEO and its staff, the EV giant proves once again why it’s the leader in the EV industry by rehiring some of the employees it laid off in April in an attempt to recover from the backlash and operational challenges caused by its earlier decision.
What Caused The Layoff of Supercharger Employees?
There are many theories as to why Tesla fired almost 500 employees in April. This decision made industry professionals and Tesla enthusiasts alike question Elon’s decision, but more importantly, the shareholders started asking all the ‘awkward’ questions. Sure, most US tech-based companies are currently laying off employees because of cost-cutting measures. Tesla is no different. But this felt like a knee jerk reaction, not a pre-planned move.
The Supercharger network is quite expensive to maintain, and lowering maintenance costs by cutting Supercharger employees impacts the network’s quality and long-term maintenance costs. Tesla buyers expect top quality in every aspect of their experience, and nobody likes a charger that doesn’t work properly. While we wont see an impact in a short amount of time, we have to be real here: cutting the salary for 500 people will free a bucket load of cash to improve reliability, push through maintenance efforts and allow them better utilization if the network as well.
Another theory states that, as with all companies, their goal was to streamline and improve their processes. So, shutting down the Supercharger team may have been part of an effort to integrate charging infrastructure responsibilities into other parts of the organization. This sounds like a long shot because why would you fire the people who are experts in their field and then expect other departments to have the same efficiency?
One of the more real reasons could be that with the improvement of technology, Tesla leadership believed that they could manage the network with fewer employees. Because of automation and remote monitoring solutions, they can monitor the whole network without a large team. The thing is, monitoring is one thing, but somebody should also repair those charging stations, and Supercharger employees are the best in the market.
Why Did Tesla Rehire The Supercharger Employees?
The answer is easy: Operational problems. Workers that previously worked at Tesla stated that even before the large manpower reduction, they already have been overburdened. The disorienting customer experiences may have been the key reason for the rehires as Tesla couldn’t meet the standards they previously had.
Tesla’s customers always prided themselves on their Supercharger network, which could charge Teslas as fast as 20 minutes and was almost always available for them. With the drop of the maintenance crew, various customers across the internet began to worry about the possibility that the quality and, more importantly, the quantity of the charging stations would drop. Thankfully, Tesla management quickly realized it needed to rehire qualified Supercharger employees with the knowledge and experience to operate and support the network in the way their customers are used to.
Ten years ago, Tesla way the only player on the map, but today, companies like BP Pulse are rapidly growing their networks and are taking a huge chunk of the cake. And that’s not all, but they’re focused on employing the fired. If there’s not a quick reaction from Tesla, the competition will use their knowledge to improve their networks drastically, and rehiring former Supercharger employees (especially the executive level ones) has become a must.
An interesting fact that confirms the latter is that the former North American director of charge, Max de Zegher, is back. This means that Tesla needed somebody from the old guard to handle the challenges of running a large network of charging stations. However, Rebecca Tinucci, the previous head of charging infrastructure, is not back yet, which could mean that not everybody was called back. And if we’re being realistic, after the whole getting laid off experience, maybe they don’t want to be a part of the Supercharger team again after all.
Elon Musk promised that Tesla will invest $500 million this year to build its Supercharger network, but without a seasoned workforce, this might not result in substantial moves or improvements to the network. While the Tesla may be years ahead of its charging infrastructure competitors, due to recent major moves and shakeups, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Tesla and its Supercharger network.
