Earlier this week, news emerged that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had let go of the entire 500-person team working on its Supercharger network, the company's flagship network of chargers that's significantly set it apart from its EV competitors.
The company has even already begun pulling out of key Supercharger location leases, as Electrek reports.
And Tesla owners, who had long been compelled by Musk's vision for a more reliable, nationwide fast-charging network, are furious.
To many, a convenient and significantly faster way to charge their vehicles was why they chose to buy a Tesla in the first place. With Musk seemingly abandoning ambitions to expand the network, many owners — who have otherwise turned a blind eye to his racistantics and questionable behavior — are starting to turn against the mercurial billionaire.
"Superchargers are what convinced me on Tesla," one user wrote on the TeslaMotors subreddit. "Hopefully this isn’t the beginning of the end."
It's a major reversal for Musk, who showed off sleek renders of a Tesla Hotel, a 24-hour diner, and a drive-in theater at a Los Angeles Supercharger station a mere seven months ago.
The stakes are considerable. Tesla is staring down the barrel of a disastrous financial year: sales are down and the company's reputation has tanked, in large part due to the CEO's own behavior. Meanwhile, Tesla's competitors are rapidly catching up.
Heads are rolling, with Musk hitting the automaker with two rounds of mass layoffs, reportedly affecting up to 20 percent of Tesla's global headcount. Several senior executives have since left the company, alongside the head of EV charging Rebecca Tinucci and her team.
Tesla is giving up on a considerable lead when it comes to EV charging infrastructure. The number of new Tesla charging stations has outstripped its competitors; according to EVAdoption, installations are up roughly 19 percent between January and March of this year. The company operates 5,682 locations and 27,257 ports across the US, numbers that are only beaten by ChargePoint, an EV infrastructure company that operates the largest online network of independently owned charging stations.
But now that Tesla is greatly scaling back its ambitions to extend its signature network of Superchargers, customers are becoming wary of longer lines. And that's not to mention Tesla's decision to open up its network to its competitors, which will likely only worsen overcrowding.
The company's North American Charging Standard is quickly becoming ubiquitous across other car brands, with the likes of General Motors and Ford agreeing to adopt the plug for future vehicles.
In other words, all hell is about to break loose at Tesla's existing Supercharger stations — and Tesla owners are irked.
"I don’t see what the point is of them opening the network to other manufacturers and then scaling back expansion?" one user wondered in the TeslaMotors subreddit. "There’s already many stations in my area that are very busy with just Teslas. I can’t imagine how that looks with additional cars from other manufacturers."
Others pointed out that the company's Supercharger department was actually making money. According to Bloomberg's estimates, the Supercharger network generated around $1.74 billion in revenue last year, roughly 17 percent of Tesla's "Services & Other" segment.
Many wondered what Musk's intention was behind the move. Is he trying to slim down the company's ranks to stay solvent, or is he weeding out executives who aren't loyal enough?
"He stirs the pot and creates these frenzies all the time," one Reddit user suggested. "It's his way of getting the blood flowing at his companies."
Others have squarely turned against the mercurial CEO, echoing the sentiments of many investors who have longargued that Musk is the main thing standing between Tesla and success.
"I’m over Elon's 'break shit' philosophy," wrote another enraged Reddit user. "Tesla at this stage should be operating as a mature company, not a pet project. He’s gotta go."
"Musk is making this brand so toxic," one user wrote. "Really sad to see."
Musk's decision to fire the company's entire Supercharger team could send reverberations across the industry and have real consequences for EV adoption.
"This is really bad news not only for Tesla, but for the EV industry in the US," one Reddit user argued. "This will mean less supercharger maintenance and expansion, more congestion, and less access for new users."
"It’s almost like they don’t want to be a car company anymore," another added.
Musk has promised that Tesla isn't abandoning its efforts to expand its Supercharger network entirely, tweeting that it'll do so "at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100 percent uptime and expansion of existing locations."
But whether that'll be enough for the company's most diehard customers, who have complained for years about overcrowded stations, remains to be seen.
"The truth is that I only got Tesla due to the Supercharger network," one user on the TeslaMotors subreddit wrote. "I still don’t love the interior fit and finish. If the others catch up then that’s it."
