#Tesla

While the impacts of Tesla recent Supercharger team layoffs remain to be seen, reports have surfaced that it’s giving up on another of its innovations. Reuters sources said the automaker has scrapped plans to further develop its gigacasting efforts, which drastically reduces the complexities involved with manufacturing unibody vehicles.

Yesterday, Tesla laid off the entire team responsible for working on its Supercharger stations. Considering that so many other automakers are in the process of switching to the Tesla charging standard, how is this going to affect the EV charging landscape?

In a shocking move, Tesla laid off its entire Supercharger staff, raising questions about its future and ability to continue offering a superior experience to a growing number of EV owners. InsideEVs reported on the most immediate impact of the layoffs, as it learned that some new charging sites had already been canceled.

Tesla is undergoing layoffs, with Elon Musk confirming the loss of two senior executives and plans to reduce overhead by cutting staff. This has been relatively common within the automotive sector, with legacy manufacturers having engaged in rolling layoffs for years as a way to offset development costs and maximize profits. But Tesla has long been viewed as the vanguard of electrification and the brand most other EV manufacturers hope to embody due to its meteoric rise.

While American politicians love to harp about TikTok’s Chinese owners and the national security issues that could bring, it may also be true that they worry that the platform is influencing an entire generation with quick hits of liberal political thought and economic theory. A recent survey from AlixPartners found that young TikTok users are increasingly seeing EVs on the app, with more than half of them saying they were aware of Chinese brands like Lynk&Co and BYD.

This will come as no surprise to anyone, but Tesla is yet again changing its prices, though this time it’s on a less-than-week-old vehicle. The Model 3 Performance, which only went on sale last week, has already received a $1,000 price bump, making it $53,990 to start.

Late last year, Tesla recalled two million vehicles to add more driver monitoring safeguards to its Autopilot feature, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is worried it might not have done enough. The NHTSA recently announced that it was opening an investigation into the recall after crashes involving “fixed” vehicles and its early testing on the issue.

Ford hasn’t had the best luck with profitability on its electric vehicle business, but the automaker is not shying away from aiming at the cheaper end of the EV spectrum. CEO Jim Farley recently confirmed that the company would purse sub-$30,000 electric models with its next-generation product line, and said that its existing models would become better in the meantime.

Following Tesla has always been a whiplash-inducing experience. The will they, won’t they themes continue in 2024, as the automaker recently reversed its reported decision to nix affordable EV plans, though the flip appears related to less-than-stellar first-quarter performance.

Electric-only automakers are going through it right now. Tesla recently laid off 10,000 workers after posting disappointing first-quarter sales numbers, and now Rivian is slashing another one percent of its workforce after layoffs earlier this year.

Remember the Toyota stuck accelerator fiasco? Pepperidge Farm remembers. It’s now Tesla’s turn, as the automaker recently issued a stop-sale for an issue with the Cybertruck’s accelerator pedal. Though unconfirmed, the move could be related to a recent TikTok video from an owner, in which the Cybertruck owner demonstrated that his Tesla’s accelerator pedal cover could come loose and cause it to stick in the open position.

Following a nine-week hold on F-150 Lightning allocations to dealers, Ford has announced it will be resuming shipments. Meanwhile, Tesla reportedly delayed Cybertruck deliveries. The rumor is that it needed to address some quality concerns. But the reasons assumed vary and the company hasn’t said anything about the issue, and likely won’t since it disbanded its PR department years ago. However, this may not be the victory for Blue Oval that it appears.

Things are getting a little bumpy at Tesla. The automaker’s first-quarter delivery numbers raised eyebrows, undercutting even the most critical expectations by a notable margin. Now, rumors are swirling about Tesla’s employee base, with some telling Electrek that the automaker plans to cut as much as 10 percent of its workforce in what would amount to thousands of layoffs.

Last week, reports surfaced that Tesla had canceled its affordable car project as CEO Elon Musk pivoted to focus on autonomous taxis. Though he called the reports fake news, Musk is pressing ahead with his plan to develop Robotaxis, but said the company would reveal the taxi project on August 8.

Affordable EVs seem to be a nut that no automaker can crack, as every promise of a “sub-$30,000” model or similar has fallen through in favor of higher prices. It now seems that Tesla is following suit, despite repeated promises that it would develop a mass-market EV at a reasonable price. Earlier today, Reuters reported that the automaker had ditched its efforts to develop the car and would look instead at developing autonomous taxis on the platform that would have underpinned it.