Elon Musk's move to lay off most, if not all, of Tesla's Supercharging team today came as a total shock to the auto industry and EV drivers everywhere, even if he did imply that construction projects would continue. But InsideEVs has learned that at least four sites in New York City were canceled this morning, leaving several of them potentially open to other charging companies building there instead.
Moreover, the cancellations of the four sites raise questions about what's happening to planned Supercharger locations across the rest of the country and the world, now that Tesla's charging team is either considerably smaller or nonexistent.
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According to a source with knowledge of New York's real estate landscape and documents seen by InsideEVs, Tesla has opted out of four planned sites: one in the South Bronx, one in the Gateway Center shopping center in South Brooklyn, and two in Maspeth and College Point, Queens. All but Maspeth were said to be ready for the electricity demands of DC fast charger installations, which can be a tall order in New York City.
DC fast charging has ramped up across the Five Boroughs in recent months, especially after New York lifted its cap on Uber and Lyft rideshare drivers—provided they operate electric vehicles. This led many rideshare drivers to buy Teslas last year, but the dearth of fast charging options often left them with long wait times to get back on the road, especially at Brooklyn's current lone Supercharger site in Coney Island.
Yet with the mass layoffs affecting the Supercharging team today, the future growth of Tesla-branded public fast chargers seems unclear at best. However, on X today, Musk seemingly sought to reassure concerned drivers:
But if pending sites in New York have been canceled, then presumably the same thing is happening in other cities—a baffling move right as more and more automakers switch to Tesla's charging plug in the coming years and gain access to the Supercharger network. Indeed, Tesla has been a large recipient of Biden Administration charging grants and was expected to be a major linchpin in America's future EV charging ecosystem.
Given the scope of Tesla's Superchargers right now—it owns some 30% of DC fast chargers nationwide—that will still be the case for a while. But slowing down the rollout of Tesla Superchargers could also slow the growth of EV adoption, unless another company steps up to take up Tesla's mantle instead.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
