Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said the company plans to spend more than $500 million to expand its charging network, just days after mass layoffs hit the EV maker’s Supercharger unit.
In a tweet on X early Friday morning, Musk said: “Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year. That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher.”
The news comes after Musk and Tesla laid off nearly the entire Supercharger organization last week with the executive saying on X that the network will grow at “a slower pace” for new locations.
Yahoo Finance’s senior autos reporter Pras Subramanian reports:
Automakers like GM, Ford, Kia, Polestar, Stellantis, Honda, and others had signed up to access the Supercharger network, and incorporate Tesla’s NACS plug inlet in their future vehicles, under the promise that the Supercharger network would continue to grow at a steady pace.
Tesla was likely getting an earful from its NACS partners, questioning what they were getting exactly after signing deals to access the Supercharger network.
In addition, contractors and others working with Tesla on existing Supercharger projects were getting their emails bounced back with no feedback on what to do next. Tesla also apparently backed out of leases at four upcoming Supercharger sites in New York, per EV blog Electrek.
Charging network provider EVgo told Yahoo Finance that it was “actively engaged” in the development of the NACS network and was adding more locations to take advantage of Tesla’s move to backtrack its expansion.
EVgo competitor Blink Charging is also poised to move on the opportunity, claiming potential Supercharger customers contacted Blink about future orders in the wake of Tesla’s move.
Even oil and gas stalwarts like BP are moving in on Tesla. With its BP Pulse charging network, the company said it “is aggressively looking to acquire real estate to scale our network, which is a heightened focus following the recent Tesla announcement.”
The company’s top executive is even telling Tesla’s jilted partners to give him a ring.
“If there are stranded real estate partners who are looking for someone to call, they should feel free to pick up the phone and call me or look me up on LinkedIn,” BP Pulse Americas CEO Sujay Sharma told Bloomberg.
