Elon Musk wants you to think Tesla still has a Supercharger plan despite mass layoffs

Elon Musk is CEO of Tesla.Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA/Getty Images

Elon Musk isn’t done with Superchargers yet.
Despite firing Tesla’s Supercharger team last week, the CEO committed to the network on Friday.
“Tesla will spend well over $500m expanding our Supercharger network,” Musk wrote on X.

Apparently, Elon Musk really is still game for Superchargers.

On Friday, the billionaire Tesla chief took to X to clarify that he was, in fact, still very committed to building out Tesla’s Supercharger business.

“Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500m expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year,” Musk wrote. “That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher.”

Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.

That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2024

You may recall that just a week ago, Musk suddenly decided to fire nearly all the 500 employees on Telsa’s Supercharger team.

Tesla’s Supercharger network, a collection of fast-charging plug-in stations spread over more than 50,000 sites globally, was seen by investors as a vital cornerstone in the company’s ambitions to lead the EV market.

Rivals like Ford and GM have been scrambling to gain access to it. The spread of chargers was also seen as a key strategy to offset concerns potential EV buyers might have around range anxiety too.

So as news broke that Musk was axing the Supercharger team, it’s safe to say Tesla investors were left more than a little puzzled. As Tesla investor Ross Gerber put it: “Any retreat from this part of the business will have a negative impact on the EV industry.”

At the time, Musk tried to offset some concerns by saying Tesla still “plans to grow” the network, just “at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations.”

Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2024

But with his comments on Friday, it looks like Musk has set out to shake off any lingering doubts about his commitment to a business that analysts have estimated could generate almost $7.5 billion in revenue and $730 million in profit a year for Tesla by 2030.

The thing is, with Tesla still without a functioning Supercharger team, the logistics of implementing Musk’s plans remain a bit of a mystery.

Musk, who has driven a big shake-up at Tesla recently following the decision to cut more than 10% of the company’s workforce in March, seems to be focusing on robotaxis as he looks to boost Tesla’s AI and autonomous driving capabilities.

Two days before firing the Supercharger team, the billionaire wrote on X: “Tesla will spend around $10B this year in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car. Any company not spending at this level, and doing so efficiently, cannot compete.”

At a time when companies are plowing billions of dollars into AI, there seems to be some logic here. But Musk also has a stated goal of selling 20 million Teslas a year by 2030.

He’ll definitely want to amp up his Supercharger network too if he plans on achieving that.