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(text/pan yuchen, editor/gao xin)teslain order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, tesla announced a 10% layoff, involving as many as 14,000 employees. however, what tesla may not have expected was that the company would soon experience the embarrassment of "layoffs that affected the aorta".

according to a report by the wall street journal on september 16, after the massive layoffs in april this year, the expansion of tesla's supercharger network has slowed significantly in recent months. data from electric vehicle analysis company ev adoption showed that in the first eight months of this year, the number of new supercharger stations opened by tesla fell 11% compared with the same period in 2023; from may to august after the layoffs, it fell 28% compared with the same period last year.

tesla did not respond to a request for comment, but just last week, tesla ceo elon musk announced at x that tesla is opening more supercharger stations.

tesla has 6,500 supercharging stations around the world, which is one of tesla's main selling points as an electric car brand. however, with the decline in car sales and performance, tesla has to start reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and the huge investment in the supercharging network is also among them.

in april this year, musk sent an internal letter to employees announcing the decision to lay off 10% of the global workforce, and said that the layoffs were to reduce costs and improve productivity. among them, drew baglino, senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, who had worked at tesla for 18 years and was musk's core deputy, also announced his resignation. some tesla employees even announced through social networks that musk decided to disband the supercharging business department, including team leader rebecca tinucci and new product leader daniel ho. about 500 employees were laid off.

in response to this, musk once responded on social media that tesla still plans to develop a network of supercharging stations, but the pace of building new stations will be slowed down, focusing on expanding existing charging facilities.

however, tesla's layoffs of the supercharging team quickly threw the industry into chaos: the construction of some supercharging station sites was forced to suspend, and some site owners who were negotiating with tesla to build charging stations were also in chaos due to layoffs. in the first few weeks after the layoffs, tesla's partners and contractors found it difficult to contact their contacts at tesla via email.

in desperation, tesla tried to bring in new leadership and teams to get the supercharging business back on track.

at the end of may this year, tesla rehired several senior members of the supercharging team, including max de zegher, the project's leader, and a handful of managers who ran the project in north america. an organizational chart shows that mike snyder, a long-time tesla executive who previously led its industrial battery project, has taken over the charging team and is responsible for overseeing several projects previously led by baglino.

at the same time, musk also said that he plans to spend more than 500 million us dollars (about 3.55 billion yuan) to improve the supercharging network. however, musk also said that the above expenses are only for new factories and expansions, and do not include operating costs, because operating costs are much higher.

although tesla has been working hard to rebuild its supercharging team and even rehired previously laid-off employees, the expansion of its charging network this year has been significantly constrained. people familiar with the matter said that tesla is still committed to expanding its supercharging network, but now it can only rely on fewer employees to complete the tasks in the past.

in addition, the slowdown in the construction of tesla supercharging stations has also affected many non-tesla car owners. because before this, tesla had reached cooperation with many car companies, enabling the latter to use tesla's supercharging piles for charging. therefore, the continued slowdown in the construction of tesla supercharging stations may have an impact on the charging experience of the entire industry.

in november 2022, tesla proposed that automakers should adopt a unified charging standard and share its charging connector design to encourage charging network operators and automakers to adopt the technology. in may 2023, ford motor company took the lead in announcing a partnership with tesla, allowing owners of ford electric vehicles to use tesla's more than 12,000 supercharging stations in north america starting in 2024. however, ford car owners still need to use tesla's supercharging piles by using an adapter. to this end, ford also plans to equip its next generation of electric vehicles, including an electric pickup truck and a 7-seater suv, with tesla's charging ports starting in 2025.

in march this year,auspiciousa high-end pure electric brand under the holding grouppole starit also announced that it would start cooperation with tesla china on charging network interconnection.polestar 2users of the polestar 4 can charge their cars at tesla's supercharger and destination charger stations in mainland china. as of march, tesla has opened more than 800 charging stations and more than 4,600 charging piles to polestar in mainland china, covering more than 200 cities.

in june of the same year, rivian, a new american car manufacturer, also announced that starting from 2024, rivian owners will be able to use tesla supercharging piles through adapters; starting from 2025, rivian will adopt tesla's charging standards.

tesla's opening of its charging facilities to outside companies also makes it eligible for billions of dollars in federal government funding to expand its charging network. according to ev adoption, the company has received about $37 million (about 262 million yuan) in public funds to build 88 super charging stations in the united states so far. in july and august of this year, tesla received $1.8 million (about 12.77 million yuan) and $2.9 million (about 20.57 million yuan) from maryland and arizona, respectively, to build charging stations locally.

as more and more automakers plan to join the network, tesla's expansion needs become more prominent. however, due to layoffs in the charging department, tesla's cooperation with other automakers has also encountered obstacles. the main problems include the adaptation of charging software and the distribution of charging station adapters. in addition, tesla also plans to expand its cooperation with general motors,volvothe charging support range of the car and polestar, but tesla's website currently shows these additions as "coming soon."

in the view of nick negro, founder of research and consulting group atlas public policy, this is actually one of the biggest challenges tesla has faced since the first release of the supercharger. brent gruber, executive director of electric vehicle business at jd power, also said that this is a major disadvantage after opening the network to non-tesla owners. tesla's supercharger business still has a long way to go to get back on track after layoffs.

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