EV giant Tesla Inc TSLA reportedly earned over $17 million in charging infrastructure grants before it decided to lay off its supercharger team and downsize its charging infrastructure deployment goals.
What Happened: As per a report from Politico, Tesla won about 13% of all EV charging awards from Biden’s 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, amounting to over $17 million in infrastructure grants as of February. Tesla reportedly claimed the amount to build a total of 41 charging stations.
However, fast forward to a few weeks later and the company is downsizing its supercharging goals.
Experts see advantages in Tesla playing a major role in building the government-funded charging network, citing the company’s existing infrastructure and expertise.
“It should lead to a generally larger and more robust network of stations,” said Aaron Kressig, manager of the transportation electrification program at Western Resource Advocates, as per the report.
Nick Nigro, founder of EV analysis shop Atlas Public Policy, highlights this strength: “Tesla is a company full of very smart engineers and other professionals who have accelerated the transition to electric vehicles. While their CEO gets disproportionate attention because of his antics, he does not define the company, and the company does not need his input to succeed."
Politico noted that Tesla's share of the federal monetary awards should ideally not raise antitrust concerns.
Why It Matters: Earlier this week, it was reported that Tesla’s senior director of charging infrastructure was leaving the company and nearly her entire team was being laid off or reassigned.
Tesla has decided to lay off 10% or 14,000 of its global workforce to cut costs and focus all efforts on achieving vehicle autonomy.
Following the report, Musk said that the company will continue to grow its supercharger network but at a “slower pace” for new locations.
At the end of the first quarter, Tesla had 57,579 Supercharger connectors and 6,249 stations worldwide. The company also started opening its Supercharger network in North America to rival EV makers including Ford and Rivian in February.
Tesla's more than 15,000 Superchargers across North America make up three out of every four fast chargers in the region.
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