A huge Tesla layoff widely reported earlier this year could have implications that reverberate to top-level government planning.
That's because the Elon Musk-owned company is a key player in expanding nationwide electric vehicle charging capacity, a central part of President Joe Biden's $7.5 billion effort to put a power-up station every 50 miles on highways.
What's happening?
Musk sent a memo to workers in April telling them that 10% of the staff was being let go, in part due to "duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas," according to a Musk memo published by Business Insider.
The layoff news continued into May when Reuters reported that the job cuts "gutted" Tesla's EV charging team, potentially delaying Biden's big EV plans. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program is a $5 billion, five-year federal investment to build 500,000 EV chargers by 2030.
"It's going to delay NEVI rollout. There's no question about it," Aatish Patel, co-founder of EV charger manufacturer XCharge North America, told Reuters.
Why are charging stations important?
Reliably located charge ports are crucial as more EVs — a record 1.2 million were sold in the U.S. alone last year, per Cox Automotive — enter the roadways.
The transition is important because EVs can reduce about 9,867 pounds of heat-trapping pollution compared to gas guzzlers, depending on where you live and how electricity is produced there, according to U.S. energy officials.
While buying an EV can't guarantee good health, the cleaner ride will cut the amount of planet-warming, harmful gas entering our atmosphere, which is even being noticed in classrooms. Government experts are finding that high temperatures negatively impact children's academic performance, for example.
What's being done about charger capacity?
It's hard to imagine Tesla won't be a key player in building the charger network. Tesla owns two-thirds of the nation's fast chargers and can quickly deploy them, per The Washington Post. The company already operates a vast, global network of 50,000 Superchargers, with other unique concepts in the works.
As for NEVI, the Post reported in May that Tesla had won 69 federal contracts to construct stations, more than any other company. For his part, Musk posted on his X social media site, formerly known as Twitter, in late April that Tesla is going to grow the Supercharger network.
"Just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations," he wrote.
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
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the Post that the effort is bigger than one company.
"This is an evolving and competitive market where multiple companies are playing leading roles here," she said.
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