Read the wild email Tesla is sending to suppliers amid Supercharger chaos
After firing its entire Supercharger team, Tesla has sent out an email to suppliers which shows just how chaotic the decisionmaking leading up to the firings must have been.
Earlier this week, Tesla abruptly fired its entire Supercharging team, leading to an immediate pullback in Supercharger installation plans. Now we’ve seen the email that Tesla has sent to suppliers, and it’s not pretty.
When the firings were announced Monday night, there was little information about how they would affect Tesla’s plans.
On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that “Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations.” According to Tesla’s website, Superchargers currently have 99.95% uptime.
But in the interim, we’ve already heard about Supercharger projects being cancelled, including halting rollout in the entire country of Australia, including sites that had already been subject to long-term leases and given the go-ahead for construction which will now be abandoned.
And Tesla has also sent out an email to all of its suppliers, which leaked to the internet. Here it is in full, but with contact information redacted:
To all concerned:
You may be aware that there has been a recent adjustment with the Supercharger organization which is presently undergoing a sudden and thorough restructuring. If you have already received this email, please disregard it as we are attempting to connect with our suppliers and contractors. As part of this process, we are in the midst of establishing new leadership roles, prioritizing projects, and streamlining our payment procedures. Due to the transitional nature of this phase, we are asking for your patience with our response time.
I understand that this period of change may be challenging and that patience is not easy when expecting to be paid, however, I want to express my sincere appreciation for your understanding and support as we navigate through this transition. At this time, please hold on breaking ground on any newly awarded construction projects and planned pre-construction walks. If currently working on an active Supercharging construction site, please continue. Contact [email redacted] for further questions, comments, and concerns. Additionally, hold on working on any new material orders. Contact [email redacted] for further questions, comments, and concerns. If waiting on delayed payment, please contact [email redacted] for a status update. Thank you for your cooperation and patience.
The email is remarkable for several reasons, largely because it shows a lack of structure and consideration to the decision to fire the entire team.
Firstly, Tesla states that it is “attempting” to connect with suppliers and that it may have sent multiple emails to some of them. This suggests that Tesla doesn’t have an established method of contact for all of its suppliers – either it doesn’t have a master contact list, or its previous method including points of contact within Tesla is not usable because, well, those points of contact would have been fired.
Second, it says that the “adjustment” (an odd word for firing an entire department) has led to a process of establishing new leadership roles. This is typically something that a company would consider before changing leaders, and ensure that there are current employees with experience who are ready to step up to take the position of a retiring leader, perhaps with a period of mentorship prior to the outgoing leader’s retirement.
Even in a situation where a firing is sudden, it’s typically reasonable to elevate a previous second-in-command to fill the void. This is why it’s beneficial to have a deep bench – something which Tesla has touted before.
Third, Tesla goes on to mention that these suppliers are “expecting to be paid,” which suggests that Tesla is likely to welch on its payment obligations, at least in the short term. We have seen Musk refuse to pay bills before, so mention of skipping out on payment must raise alarm bells for suppliers who have been working in good faith with Tesla.
Finally, Tesla asks for suppliers to continue construction on active projects, but to hold on breaking ground or doing pre-construction site walks. This could be considered unclear, as there are many parallel steps to approval, permitting and construction of sites, so it’s hard to set a single line that is easily communicated about which sites should continue and which sites shouldn’t. Presumably, site contacts within Tesla would be able to reach out to individual sites and tell them whether to continue construction or not – if they were still working there, which it seems they are not.
To ask for patience is reasonable when an unforeseen circumstance hits a company, but this is not an unforeseen circumstance – it is entirely self-inflicted by Tesla.
Other charging providers have reacted to Tesla’s disruption of its own Supercharger plans, with at least one company, Revel, suggesting that it’s ready to swoop in on “really good sites” that Tesla left on the table, particularly in Revel’s home in New York City.
Electrek’s Take
We have heard from several sources who told us that the reason for these firings is because Rebecca Tinucci, former head of Tesla’s EV Charging division, resisted Musk’s demand to fire large portions of her team.
While this is hearsay, it’s plausible considering the language in Musk’s letter announcing the firings – which claimed that some executives are not taking headcount reduction seriously, and made a point to say that executives who retain the wrong employees may see themselves and their whole teams cut. It isn’t a stretch to think that Musk included those demands since they were related to his firing of Tinucci and her team.
The Supercharging team was one of the more successful and crucial teams within Tesla, and many observers consider the Supercharger network to be Tesla’s primary “moat” that makes it better than the competition. Tinucci was also responsible for negotiating NACS agreements across the industry, leading to a huge win when Tesla’s plug became the de facto standard after basically every automaker adopted it over the course of the last year.
Superchargers are also incredibly important, especially in North America. In Europe there are more successful non-Tesla charge providers, but in NA, Tesla is the big dog. And if infrastructure is important, then Tesla pulling back is bad not just for Tesla but for EVs as a whole.
It seems abundantly clear that, whatever explanation we accept, the firing of the Supercharger team was not well-considered (and our readers seem to agree). Even if headcount reduction is necessary, the whole team shouldn’t be laid off. Even if it was necessary as a retaliatory measure – which would not be a good rationale – it still would be wiser to retain some part of it so as to avoid the chaos suggested by the email above.
Whatever mechanism led to the firing, it does fit into a pattern of increasingly erratic behavior that Musk has been showing lately.
Many possible explanations have been advanced to explain this behavior, and most of them don’t increase my personal faith that Musk will make the right decisions with Tesla.
As I said in our original post about Tesla’s first round of layoffs, we do need Tesla to keep pushing the industry forward. While Pandora’s box is open and EVs are here to stay at this point, regardless of Tesla’s ups and comparatively-rare downs, the rest of the industry is still trying hard to pump the brakes on the transition, even if it means America will be less competitive if those companies get their way.
Tesla is one of the few entities that is large enough and committed enough to dragging those timelines forward, whether the rest of the industry likes it or not. We need a healthy Tesla, and for that, we need steadier management. This email is not an example of that – and neither are most of Musk’s managerial actions recently.
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Construction and mining giant Caterpillar has reached a major milestone for its autonomous haulage system (AHS), reaching one million tons (!) of aggregate hauled by the company’s massive self-driving trucks.
The milestone was reached as part of an ongoing collaboration between Cat and Luck Stone’s Bull Run Quarry in Chantilly, Virginia to help demonstrate the worth of Caterpillar’s in-house AHS solution, and goes a long way towards proving to doubters of autonomous technology that AHS has what it takes to safely and dependably operate in a working quarry.
And, crucially, that the AHS Cats can keep an existing quarry running strong, even in the face of continuous labor shortages in the mining and aggregate industries.
Reaching the one million tons hauled autonomously milestone confirms that autonomous haulage can deliver consistent, repeatable performance. It also signals how autonomous solutions will address skilled labor shortages, improve site safety, increase operational efficiency, and upskill quarry employees to run autonomy.
Since the initial deployment of the autonomous tech stack-equipped Cat 777 haul trucks, the collaboration has focused on validating autonomy along with the people and processes in conditions that are typical in quarry operations but distinct from mining, where the benefits of autonomous operation has seen more significant deployment.
With the success of the Luck Stone pilot at Bull Run, however, that mining/quarry imbalance may not be the status quo for much longer.
“This milestone is a powerful demonstration of what’s possible when we collaborate with our customers to deliver solutions for their critical needs,” explains Denise Johnson, Caterpillar Group President, Resource Industries. “Reaching one million tons hauled autonomously at Bull Run shows that autonomy isn’t just for mining – it’s scalable, reliable, and ready to transform the aggregates industry. We’re proud to collaborate with Luck Stone to lead that transformation.”
Caterpillar hopes the Bull Run project sets a precedent for the broader aggregates industry, and they continue to explore opportunities to expand autonomy across additional Luck Stone sites and operations.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Caterpillar.
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The Northwest Seaport Alliance has announced the recipients of its inaugural incentive program for zero emission drayage trucks – and they’ve turned to the logistics experts at Zeem to deploy 19 battery electric semi trucks to serve the Seattle-Tacoma gateway.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance incentive program is funded by a $6.2 million grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), and will see bring 19 zero emission Class 8 semi trucks (like the Kenworth T680, shown) and their associated charging infrastructure to the Puget Sound region.
“We are thankful to the Northwest Seaport Alliance for helping the region adopt electric trucks, and we invite truck operators to experience how well they are matched to the job of hauling drayage,” says Paul Gioupis, CEO of Zeem Solutions. “We have served truck fleets for several years, and our goal is to make it a compelling business decision for fleets, that is both economically and environmentally sustainable.”
19 trucks, hundreds of charging customers
In a bid to help make electrification an even more compelling option for PNW truck fleets, the new Zeem facility won’t just serve its fleet of 19 electric semi trucks – the project also includes a charging depot that will be able to serve up to 250 electric vehicles per day, with overnight parking capacity for up to 70 vehicles, including heavy-, medium-, and light-duty vehicles.
“Nearly 4,000 short-haul trucks serve the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, traveling to nearby distribution centers and warehouses,” reads the official press release. “… operators will be able to switch to electric trucks and charging without the large amount of upfront capital typically needed for heavy-duty EVs and charging infrastructure.”
The charging site will be located near the new I-5 exit ramp just south of SeaTac Airport, along SR-99 (International Blvd./Pacific Hwy.), convenient for nearby warehouse and distribution centers that see a large volume of truck deliveries.
Electrek’s Take
Drayage trucks are typically heavy-duty Class 8 trucks that work short haul routes from ports to warehouses or loading facilities. They frequently travel back and forth along local roadways, meaning they have a high impact on air quality in a given area. And, depending on who you believe, truck emissions represent about 6% of all seaport-related diesel pollution and about 30% of all seaport-related climate pollution in the Puget Sound region – emissions that disproportionately impact communities living near port operations and along freight corridors.
As such: more electric drayage is more good news.
We had a chance to talk to Zeem CEO, Paul Gioupis, as one of our guests on Quick Charge last summer, and a lot of that discussion is still relevant today. Give it a listen (above), then let us know what you think of all this in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Zeem Solutions.
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The California Senate dropped a controversial provision of an upcoming solar law which would have broken long-standing solar contracts with California homeowners after significant public backlash over the state’s plans to do so.
For several months now, AB 942 has been working its way through the California legislature, with big changes to the way that California treats contracts for residential solar.
The state has long allowed for “net metering,” the concept that if you sell your excess solar power to the grid, it gives you a credit that you can use to draw from the grid when your solar isn’t producing.
Some 2 million homeowners in California signed contracts with 20-year terms when they purchased their solar systems, figuring that the solar panels would pay off their significant investment over the coming decades by allowing them to sell power to the grid that they generated from their rooftops.
But this has long been a sticking point for the state’s regulated private utilities. They are in the business of selling power, so they tend to have little interest in buying it from the people they’re supposed to be selling it to.
As a result, utilities have consistently tried to get language watering down net metering contracts inserted into bills considered by the CA legislature, and the most recent one was a bit of a doozy.
The most recent plan was asked for by the CA Public Utilities Commission, in response to an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was authored by a former utility executive, and used some questionable justifications, claiming that solar customers were responsible for high utility bills by shifting costs from solar customers to non-solar customers. Other analyses show that rooftop solar helped save $1.5 billion for ratepayers.
The most controversial point of AB 942 was that it would break rooftop solar contracts early. At first, it was going to break all existing contracts, then was limited to only break contracts if a homeowner sells their home. The ability to transfer these contracts was key to the buying decision for many homeowners who installed solar, as the ability to generate your own power and lower your electricity bills adds to a home’s value.
This brought anger from several rooftop solar owners and organizations associated with the industry. 100 organizations signed onto an effort to stop blaming consumers who are doing their best to reduce emissions and instead focus on the real causes of higher electricity, which the groups said are associated with high utility spending and profits.
It also resulted in several protests outside CA assemblymembers’ offices, opposing the bill. And California representatives received a high volume of comments opposing the plan to break solar contracts.
But, as of Tuesday, the language which would break rooftop solar contracts has been removed by the CA Senate’s Energy Committee, chaired by Senator Josh Becker, who led the effort. Language which blamed consumers for utility rate-hikes was also removed from the bill, according to the Solar Rights Alliance.
The bill is still not law, it has only moved out of the Energy Committee. But bills that advance through committee in California do not usually meet a significant amount of debate when they come to a floor vote, due to the Democratic supermajority in the state. It seems likely that if this bill advances to a vote, it will pass.
Electrek’s Take
The bill is still not perfect for solar homeowners. It disallows anyone with a yearly electricity bill of under $300 from getting the “California Climate Credit,” which is a refund to state utility customers paid for by California’s carbon fee on polluting industry.
The justification is thin for removing this credit from homeowners who are doing even more for the climate by installing solar… but it turns out that limitation probably won’t affect many customers, because most solar customers will still pay a yearly grid connection tax of around $300/year, and most solar customers still have a small electricity bill anyway at the end of the year.
Now, the question of a grid connection fee is another point of possible contention. This has been referred to as a “tax on the sun” in some jurisdictions, and it does feel like an attempt to nickel-and-dime customers who are contributing to climate reductions and should not be penalized for doing so. However, there is at least some rationality in the concept that they should pay to use infrastructure (but then… isn’t that the point of taxes, to build infrastructure for people to use?).
In short, even if it’s not perfect for every solar homeowner, we can consider this a win, and an example of how, at least with functional governments (unlike the US’ one), the public can and should be able to stop bad laws, or bad portions of laws, with enough public effort.
Now, if only we could apply that to those ridiculous EV fees…
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