Tesla lays off 500 employees from Supercharger team

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk has laid off hundreds of employees that were part of the company’s Supercharger team.

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In an email to employees on Monday obtained by The New York Times, Musk said he would get rid of the group working on the Supercharger stations. The nearly 500 layoffs were a surprise move by Tesla, according to CNN.

The Supercharger team was responsible for building electric vehicle charging stations, the Times reported.

The group had been a major selling point for the company’s vehicles. According to CNN, the Supercharger network was initially only able to be used by Tesla vehicles. It has recently been expanded to other EVs.

Musk said he decided to dissolve the Supercharger team to cut expenses so that the company could restore its profit margins, The Associated Press reported. The company’s profit margins have slid recently because EV sales have gone down.

Musk said that the company will slow down charging station construction, according to KGO-TV. Instead, Tesla will start focusing on the upkeep of existing chargers.

There are about 50,000 Superchargers worldwide, the company said, according to The BBC.

The Department of Energy said that Tesla has 2,261 fast-charging stations across the U.S., the AP reported. Those have about 25,491 ports.

The latest round of layoffs comes about two weeks after Tesla said it would fire 14,000 people globally, the Times reported.

Tesla has not responded to CNN or the AP’s request for comment.

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