Up again, down again Tesla (TSLA -4.64%) stock, the world’s fastest electric roller coaster, tumbled 4.9% through 12:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, giving back one-third of the 15% gains it collected yesterday after announcing Elon Musk was meeting with China’s premier to discuss FSD self-driving technology.
And the reason for today’s reversal? Tesla is laying off all workers on its uber-popular Tesla Supercharger EV charging team.
What Electrek said about Tesla
The fact that Tesla is making job cuts, laying off 10% of its workforce in response to a sharp slowdown in sales, is no secret. But as electric transportation website Electrek reports today, new layoffs include “senior executives and longtime veterans,” as well as “the entire Supercharging team.”
That’s 500 more employees gone. And these include Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s senior director of EV charging and the person responsible for arguably Tesla’s biggest win of last year: signing up all other carmakers to use Tesla’s NAC charging standard for their own electric cars.
Is Tesla stock a sell?
Tesla investors are rightly worried by the development, which seems to imply that Tesla is slowing its rollout of Supercharging stations, limiting its potential to grow as a provider of charging services. Up until now, as Electrek points out, Tesla seemed on course to become the “gas station of the future” to the entire auto industry, collecting billions in government subsidies along the way. Instead, Musk is voluntarily giving up his advantage, which feels like a gigantic unforced error.
One could argue that Tesla has already “won” the charging game, now that everyone else has agreed to adopt Tesla’s NAC technology as the standard for charging. And one could say this is a “mission accomplished” situation, that the Supercharging team is no longer needed, and so there’s no downside to laying them off. But this seems a crummy way to reward success — and loyalty — to Tesla. I can’t imagine it will do anything good for employee morale.
I can’t imagine that will mean anything good for Tesla stock, either.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.