Reuters reports the inside story of Elon Musk ditching Tesla's Supercharger division. It turns out it amount to impulsive mass-firings precipitated by the division's boss pushing back on further unplanned layoffs.
The day before Elon Musk fired virtually all of Tesla's electric-vehicle charging division last month, they had high hopes as charging chief Rebecca Tinucci went to meet with Musk about the network's future, four former charging-network staffers told Reuters.
After Tinucci had cut between 15% and 20% of staffers two weeks earlier, part of much wider layoffs, they believed Musk would affirm plans for a massive charging-network expansion.
The meeting could not have gone worse. Musk, the employees said, was not pleased with Tinucci's presentation and wanted more layoffs. When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team.
Tesla might not be an EV company, but now it isn't an EV infrastructure company, either. He can afford to be irrational but that's half a trillion dollars floating in space while Clyde figures it out.
Previously: Elon Musk is personally directing warranty repairs at Tesla
