- Musk has confirmed that Tesla will invest in new fast charging sites in the US.
- It comes after the company laid off its entire electric vehicle charging team this week.
- Tesla’s Supercharger network was on track to become the industry standard
Elon Musk has said Tesla will spend more than $500 million developing the company’s fast charging network this year, just days after firing the entire team working on it.
Musk stated in a publish in X on Friday that the money would be spent on setting up new ‘Supercharger’ sites across the country.
“Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend over $500 million expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year,” he wrote.
“That applies only to new sites and expansions, not counting operating costs, which are much higher,” he added.
Musk has said Tesla will spend more than $500 million developing the company’s fast charging network this year.
After firing Tesla’s entire EV charging team, Musk stated that Tesla will still be able to deliver stations, but at a slower pace.
Tesla’s electric vehicle charging network is the largest in the country and received an investment from the Biden administration of more than $5 billion, aimed at boosting the popularity and convenience of electric cars.
The most common reason cited by Americans for not using electric vehicles is “range anxiety,” which is the fear of a lack of charging stations and the battery dying during a trip.
Now, Tesla’s NACS (North American Charging Standard) system is widely used by other automakers such as General Motors and Ford.
Tesla has already installed more than 2,200 stations in the US and previously planned to have tens of thousands by 2030.
Earlier this week, uproar was caused after the company abruptly fired all members of its electric vehicle charging team, including executives overseeing its adoption by the industry.
Among them was the head of the company, Rebecca Tinucci, sowing uncertainty about the future of her network.
Electric vehicle experts and officials told DailyMail.com that Tesla’s withdrawal from its agreements could simply open a door for other companies to intervene.
In the wake of the layoffs, BP’s electric vehicle charging unit indicated it was looking to expand in the United States.
Tesla has more than 2,000 Supercharger stations in the US and Musk has reiterated his plans to open more despite the layoffs
“We are actively looking to acquire real estate to scale our network, which is a heightened focus following Tesla’s recent announcement,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
But Musk said on X that Tesla was still going to expand the network, but “at a slower pace for new locations and focusing more on 100 percent uptime and expansion of existing locations.”
Uptime is the percentage of time a charger is available for use and therefore indicates the overall efficiency of a network.
Tesla’s layoff of the charging team came shortly after it announced company-wide layoffs of about 10 percent of its global workforce.
This year, the company’s share price has taken a hard hit. As of Friday, it was down about 32 percent so far this year.
