On May 1, according to media reports, Musk recently withdrew the agreement reached with the White House. The agreement is to open Tesla's electric car charging station to other automakers, meaning that other brands of electric cars can also use Tesla's charging station.
In addition, Musk decided last week to fire almost Tesla's entire super-charging team. Although he has not spoken publicly, he has said the company will slow the expansion of its charging network.
Some media pointed out that the decision could affect Tesla's cooperation with other automakers and could weaken President Biden's efforts to promote electric cars in his re-election campaign.
Meanwhile, presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked electric cars during the campaign, claiming that if he is not elected, the US auto industry will face a serious crisis.
The Biden administration's "500000 charging piles" plan may be affected
Electric car charging stations are very important for the popularity of electric vehicles, because they can make it easy to charge electric vehicles when they are on the road.
U. S. President Joe Biden wants to help the development of electric cars and battery manufacturing in the United States, so he passed some laws and policies. For example, he introduced a climate bill called the inflation reduction Act, which provides tax breaks to encourage companies to produce electric cars and batteries in the United States. In addition, Biden signed a bill called the bipartisan Infrastructure Act and plans to spend $7.5 billion on these charging stations.
In February 2023, President Biden wrote on TwitterCasinoslotmachineIn the process of building an electric car charging network, we must ensure that there are as many chargers as possible, so that drivers can find charging stations to charge their vehicles, no matter what brand of electric cars they are. To this end, Musk agreed to open up most of Tesla's network of charging stations. This is a big deal, and it will have a huge impact. "
But Tesla recently laid off about 500 employees of its supercharging team, raising questions about whether the Biden administration can achieve its goal of building a nationwide network of 500000 charging posts for electric vehicles.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Tesla's specific decision, but said that although Tesla is an important company, the US government does not rely entirely on Tesla to promote electric cars. There are many companies contributing to the electric car market in the United States, not just one company, which is a growing and competitive market.
Slowing down the construction of charging stations will hinder Tesla (TSLA)Casinoslotmachine.us) is the charging business profitable?
Among the layoffs were Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Tesla's electric car charging business, one of the company's highest-ranking female executives and a former key figure in building relationships with outside partners.
Tinucci mentioned in March last year that Tesla had the advantage of deployment cost. Because the cost of Tesla's supercharging hardware and other product lines is very low, usually 20 to 70 percent cheaper than other companies. She also told investors that the company's cost per kilowatt-hour has been reduced by 40% in the past few years.
Before Musk made the sudden decision, the research institute estimated that Tesla's charging business could make an annual profit of about $740 million by 2030. But now, some analysts point out that this profit level seems difficult to achieve because Musk has slowed down the installation of charging stations.
The layoffs reportedly affected other automakers, including General Motors, Ford and Rivian, whose customers were just beginning to be able to use Tesla's charging sockets. Tesla has been developing its charging business for more than a decade. Tesla provided 8 per cent of global public charging demand last year, according to the data.
Although Tesla laid off the supercharging team on a large scale, Musk promised to continue to expand and improve his network of supercharging stations. Musk said on X on Tuesday that the company would "focus on ensuring 100% uptime of the network and expanding its existing location."
Faced with questions from users on platform X about whether Tesla will continue with his charging network plan, Musk wrote that they will complete the charging stations under construction and add new supercharging stations where there are gaps in the network.
This article is reproduced from Wall Street News, by Fang Jiayao and Huang Xiaodong, financial editor of Zhitong.
