Tesla in Turmoil as Musk Makes Multiple Controversial Moves

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

• With a string of recent controversial moves, Tesla and its leader Elon Musk are currently going through one of the most tumultuous times in the company's history.

• Following mass layoffs, Tesla has reportedly lost several notable executives, including the head of new products and the senior director of its Supercharger Network.

• Reports also suggest the Supercharger team was severely downsized, losing most of its 500 staff members, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk saying the plan is to keep growing the charging network at a "slower pace."

[table-of-contents] stripped

For better or worse, Tesla and its enigmatic CEO Elon Musk are regulars when it comes to being a part of the daily news cycle. However, more recently, it's been for worse, as the electric-car maker is currently in the midst of a tumultuous period.

Cracks began to show earlier this year following Tesla's poor first-quarter earnings call, which revealed a notable decline in volume and missed projections. Not long after that, the automaker laid off 10 percent of its global workforce; Tesla's battery development chief Drew Baglino and vice president for public policy Rohan Patel also resigned, per a report by Reuters.

Then earlier this week, there were multiple reports that Tesla laid off an important chunk of its Supercharger team, which was revealed in a staff email wherein Musk was quoted as saying, "We need to be absolutely hardcore about head count and cost reduction."

Tesla Supercharger Team Gets Gutted

The most notable person included in the Supercharger team layoffs was Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's senior director of charging infrastructure. Tinucci's departure was announced in an email to company executives, as first reported by The Information. Other outlets have reported that the move included the vast majority of her roughly 500-person charging team. An email by Musk sent to employees reportedly said that "a few" of them will be reassigned to other teams internally. While some reports suggest the layoffs specifically target the site acquisition, project management, and marketing teams, many others say that nearly all of Tinucci's staff lost their positions.

The layoffs come at a strange time for the company as more and more automakers and third-party charging networks adopt Tesla's proprietary NACS plug and gain access to its Supercharger network. It features more than 10,000 chargers in the U.S. alone and has long been Tesla's golden child. While owners of other EVs have to contend with an automotive Wild West of broken chargers, full lots, and unwitting Chevy Bolt EV owners taking up the only 350-kW charger in their ZIP code, Tesla owners simply roll up, plug in, and charge.

On Tuesday, Musk wrote on his social media website X, formerly known as Twitter, that Tesla still plans to grow the network "just at a slower pace" and with a big focus on the expansion and reliability of existing chargers, though construction seems to be at a halt for now. The Wall Street Journal reported that the mass layoffs paused construction at a dozen Supercharger sites in Texas.

Speaking to the WSJ, Andreas Pinter, who is co-CEO of a Texas-based subcontractor and builder of a dozen Supercharger sites, said all 20 of his contacts at Tesla had been laid off. Furthermore, Pinter has received several bounce-back emails stating, "This email address is no longer valid. Any future emails sent to this address will not be received," with no other communication from Tesla. The WSJ also states that Pinter halted construction at the sites for the time being.

At this stage, it's unclear what Musk and Tesla's plan for charging is going forward. It seems likely the company will have to rehire a number of employees, not only for the continued growth of the network but also for the significant level of upkeep required for a network as large as Tesla's. –Jack Fitzgerald

Tesla Is Hemorrhaging Head Executives

Tesla's senior director of charging infrastructure is just one of the several head executives that are leaving the company in some form or another. Along with Baglino, Patel, and Tinucci, Martin Viecha, who was vice president of investor relations, has left the company. More than a week ago on his LinkedIn page, Viecha publicly announced that he was leaving the company, but also said that he'd be staying on for a couple more months to help with the transition.

Among the other reported departures are Daniel Ho, Tesla's director of new products and vehicle programs, and Allie Arebalo, who is the company's senior director of HR. Ho's dismissal was reportedly part of the announcement that Tinucci was being laid off. However, as of this writing, neither have changed their employment status on their respective LinkedIn profiles. The same goes for the latest Tesla executive to exit. Head of human resources Allie Arebalo has also left the company, according to a report Wednesday by Bloomberg, but she still lists Tesla as her employer on LinkedIn.

All in all, that makes five known members of Tesla's senior leadership who have either resigned or been laid off. Of the aforementioned group, Arebalo, Tinucci, and Viecha have been with the company for about six years, while Baglino and Ho have been there for over 10 and 18 years, respectively. That's more than 46 years of combined experience that Tesla is losing, which can only lead to more questions about the company's future as well as how many more executives might head to the exits or be escorted out. –Eric Stafford

Tesal Gigacasting Plans Put on Hold

Amid all of the layoffs and management moves, Tesla is also ditching its plans for ambitious one-piece gigacasting, as reported by Reuters. Tesla had aimed to implement a new form of gigacasting, a manufacturing process that utilizes massive presses to die-cast large sections of a car's underbody instead of the typical underbody which is made up of hundreds of small parts. Tesla's goal was to stamp the entire underbody of the car as one single piece in an effort to cut costs and manufacturing complexities. Instead, the automaker will stick with its current process of casting the underbody in three pieces.

Reuters reports that two unnamed sources familiar with the situation said Tesla was backing off from its single-piece casting plan, which was supposed to be implemented for the first time on a new, smaller, and more affordable vehicle, commonly referred to as the Model 2. The retreat on the gigacasting plans happened last autumn, according to Reuters, before Tesla canceled the Model 2 this spring.

The sources said that the decision to stop working on the one-piece gigacasting was originally to turn attention toward accelerating development of the Model 2 and minimizing the risk for costly delays. The scaling back indicates a need to reduce short-term costs as Tesla experiences a drop in sales, both as demand for EVs slows and as more competitors flood the market. The one-piece gigacasting could save money in the long run, but perfecting the process is tricky and necessitates sizable initial investments.

But Tesla won't fully abandon gigacasting. The current process, where Tesla gigacasts the front and rear sections and then creates a midsection of aluminum and steel frames where the battery lives, will continue as already seen on both the Model Y and Cybertruck. On a recent investor call, Tesla said it aims to assemble more affordable models using an existing platform and production line instead, Reuters reported.

Reuters also says that the new platform that was supposed to underpin the Model 2 will still find its way onto the street as the basis for a self-driving robotaxi that Elon Musk has claimed will debut later this year. One of Reuters' sources said that Tesla is now working on adapting its three-piece gigacasting process for the robotaxi. –Caleb Miller

You Might Also Like

• Car and Driver’s 10 Best Cars through the Decades

• How to Buy or Lease a New Car

• Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!