Tesla

This was shared by a recently laid off employee who requested anonymity. Even AI chatbots aren’t this sterile.

InsideEVs Editor-in-Chief (and former Verge contributor) Patrick George spoke to two recently laid off employees from Tesla’s Supercharger team about what’s going to happen to the company’s once-vaunted EV charging network now that it’s been gutted. They’re worried that broken chargers will take longer to fix, as the employees that are left race to respond to outages. In short, it’s going to short circuit.

On today’s Decoder, Verge transportation editor Andy Hawkins and I try to figure out Tesla. The company has been on a real rollercoaster these past two weeks — in terms of its stock price, its basic financials, and well, its vibes. With Elon Musk saying he’s going all in on autonomy and announcing a robotaxi event in August, it seems like we’re getting closer to a make-or-break moment for the company.

In the wake of more “absolutely hard core” layoffs at Tesla that were especially hard on the charging division, Elon Musk is saying the company still plans to grow its Supercharger network “at a slower pace.”

Tesla restrictions set by local authorities have been lifted now that the company’s Chinese-made vehicles have passed their data security requirements, as Musk arrived in Beijing to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday.

Hertz said in its first quarter earnings report today that it plans to sell an additional 10,000 Teslas, after committing to off-loading 20,000 of the electric vehicles earlier this year. That means the rental car company plans on selling 15 percent of the initial 200,000 EVs it said it was going to buy from Tesla and Polestar back in the heady days of 2021.

Because this guy apparently was quoted at $30,000 to activate the truck’s bidirectional vehicle-to-home Powershare capabilities. That’s about twice the amount that GM said it would cost to do the same with the Chevy Silverado EV.

Tesla laid off over 10 percent of its workforce this month, but Musk says the cuts were needed for the company’s “next phase of growth:”

That’s what Elon Musk said during Tesla’s earnings call on Tuesday, adding that Tesla will likely be able to sell the humanoid bot “externally by the end of next year.” But don’t get your hopes up just yet — Musk says these timelines “are just guesses.”

Electrek notes Model Y, S, and X prices have dropped by $2,000, and Tesla said its current referral program would end after April 30th, but it will return eventually.

A Tesla delivery center in Virginia reportedly has a way to deal with the now-recalled accelerator pedal on Cybertrucks.

Tesla paid X $280,000 for advertising and other services, according to the company’s proxy statement. X paid Tesla $1.02 million for unspecified work. SpaceX paid Tesla $2.9 million for “certain commercial, licensing and support agreements.” Tesla paid SpaceX $800,000 for use of its corporate jet. And Tesla paid the Boring Company $1.2 million.

Geneva Long, CEO of RV company Bowlus, wrote on LinkedIn that in the company’s tests, the dual-motor Cybertruck could only tow Bowlus’ 3,250lb Volterra electric RV trailer for 160 miles before its battery gave out. Others have seen similar results.