Tesla staff say entire Supercharger team fired

Tesla has fired its entire Supercharger division, staff who worked in the team say.

There are over 50,000 Superchargers globally, the company says, making it the world's largest fast-charging network for electric vehicles.

Boss Elon Musk said the firm would cut one in ten jobs, as it faces strong competition from less expensive rivals.

It needed to be "absolutely hard core" about cost reduction, he wrote in a memo first reported by The Information.

The BBC has approached Tesla for comment,

Multiple employees have confirmed their departures online.

William Jameson, strategic charging programs lead at Tesla, posted on X that Mr Musk had "let our entire charging org go".

"What a wild ride it has been", he wrote.

Also writing on X, Mr Musk said the company still planned to grow the Supercharger network, "just at a slower pace for new locations".

The cuts have surprised industry watchers.

Tesla's network of chargers is widely seen as industry leading, and recently it cut deals with several rival car-makers in north America to adopt its "NACS" charging standard so that their vehicles could use the network.

Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of electric vehicle news website Electrek, posted on social media he was "extremely perplexed" by the move.

"If one thing was a clear success at Tesla, it's the Supercharger network. Even from a talent perspective. No other charging team in the world has been able to do what Tesla did," he wrote.

Last year, seven large car manufacturers including Mercedes, Honda, BMW and Hyundai-Kia set-up a joint venture to build a rival fast-charging network.

As well as the cuts to the Supercharger department, the firm's entire public policy unit will also be cut the Financial Times reported.

The layoffs come days after the firm reported its first quarterly revenue decline since 2021.

It follows declining sales at the company, which is also having to deal with an investigation into the safety of its Autopilot assisted driving system, and a recall relating to its newest model, Cybertruck.