How Elon Musk's Tesla firing spree could nuke Biden's plan for America to go ... trends now
Elon Musk slashed the majority of Tesla's supercharger staff this week, throwing a major wrench into President Joe Biden's plan to have only EVs on the road by 2035.
The Supercharger is an EV charging bank that lets drivers use the Tesla app to find available stall locations to plug in the vehicle and sends a notification when it is fully charged.
These Superchargers were a cornerstone of Biden's plan to reduce carbon emissions by making EVs more practical. The most common reason cited by Americans for not going electric is 'range anxiety', which is the fear of a lack of charging stations and that the vehicle's battery charge won't last long enough to complete a trip.
While Musk has already installed 2,234 stations in the US, he planned to have tens of thousands by 2030 to boost the president's EV initiative.
EV experts and officials told DailyMail.com that Tesla backing out of its agreements could simply open a doorway for other companies to step in - but admitted the 2035 timeline was unlikely.
Tesla has more than 50,000 Supercharger stations and had signed leases to open more locations when Elon Musk laid off the entire Supercharger team
Elon Musk claims Tesla will still be able to deliver Supercharging stations but said it will just be done at a slower pace
Tesla halted construction at Supercharger sites across the US including a dozen in Texas and paused ongoing negotiations with property owners in New York.
The company was selected as a charging provider for at least one federally-funded EV charging infrastructure in seven states including Utah, Texas and Rhode Island that could now go unfulfilled in the wake of the layoffs.
Musk removed Tesla's entire Supercharging team of about 500 people, and although he has not confirmed what prompted the cuts, it follows a series of other layoffs as part of cost-cutting measures.
The layoffs were unusual because Tesla received $17 million in infrastructure grants as part of the Biden administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that aimed to have 500,000 Supercharger stations in place by 2030.
In February, the White House said Tesla would make at least 7,500 open chargers for all EVs by the end of 2024, including at least 3,500 new and existing 250 kilowatt Superchargers placed on highway corridors and at hotels and restaurants across the country.
It is now unlikely Tesla will be able to meet those expectations despite Musk's claims that Tesla still intends to grow its Supercharger network, 'just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations.'
'There is a lot of speculation
