How Tesla’s Supercharging Slowdown Could Hurt Everyone, Including Its Own Customers

I couldn’t get the fable of the scorpion and the frog out of my head this morning as I contemplated what it means that Tesla has decided it maybe it isn’t going to expand its Supercharging network as much as it once promised it would. This seems bad for everyone, including Tesla owners, but maybe more so for the other automakers who decided to switch to Tesla’s charging standard.

The first big automaker to switch to the standard was Ford, and it’s maybe wishing more of its cars were EVs given that it’s facing more scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is not super pleased about Ford’s supposed fix for its potentially fiery Bronco Sports and Escapes.

In better news, Mazda was able to ride a lower Japanese yen and a global yearning for hybrids to record profits. It’s not making Toyota money, but it’s making money.

And, finally, it’s Friday and I like to end on a high note, so I’m going to share a trailer for a new documentary about Le Mans created by some old friends.

WTF Tesla?

This week is going to be bookended by Tesla-led TMDs, which is something I like to avoid, but they’ve been making more moves than Mario Andretti since announcing a weak (for them) first quarter.

A couple of weeks ago it came out that Tesla was letting go of most of its Supercharging network team, and I made the point that Tesla should just sell (or spinoff) the business. You can go back and read it if you like. If you don’t have the time, here’s the rough idea:

• Tesla’s network was a moat, but if everyone can access it then the moat goes away.
• Tesla seems less interested in being a car company and making steady money, instead, it wants cash to make Moon Lambo money on AI and robots.
• Selling/spinning off could be good timing for Tesla.

Of course, what seems to have happened is that Tesla has just picked the worst possible outcome for everyone. Instead of selling a thing with an incredible edge, the company instead seems to have killed some of the inherent value.

Here are all the reasons why this is terrible, ranked by who gets screwed the most.

Bad: President Joe Biden/Biden Administration

One of the holdups in having robust EV sales is that people are worried there are not going to be enough functional chargers in convenient places if they buy an electric car. This isn’t entirely wrong! One of the reasons everyone went to Tesla’s standard in the first place is that charging networks like VW-created Electrify America were so bad that automakers just gave up hope of it ever working.

The Biden Administration’s goal was to build out 500,000 new EV chargers and, via the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, was planning to give out $5 billion to do it. Guess who was going to get a lot of that money? Tesla.

There was some concern early on that NEVI shouldn’t go to Tesla Superchargers given that they only served Teslas, but automakers solved this problem by announcing a switch to the Tesla NACS charging design.

But what now? Via Reuters:

Since news of Tesla’s abrupt EV charging layoffs surfaced, however, executives at charging companies say they have been receiving phone calls from landlords looking for a new partner for their private charging projects after Tesla pulled out.

Now, the charging companies are preparing for Tesla to pull out of the federal program. That, they say, could throw a new wrench into an already-slow rollout.
“It’s going to delay NEVI rollout. There’s no question about it,” said Aatish Patel, co-founder of XCharge North America, which makes EV chargers for fleets and charging station operators.
If Tesla backs out, then the solicitation by states for NEVI-funded charging projects starts over, he told Reuters. “A lot of these sites aren’t going to get built this year, or within the time frames that were initially dictated.”

I don’t know if you know this, but government programs only give out money very slowly, and this could make the roll-out of more EV chargers even slower. That’s bad.

Bad: Tesla Owners

If you own a Tesla and have enjoyed having to only share chargers with other Teslas you’ve probably not had to wait too long at a Supercharger station unless you’re in a specific market or use it at a specific time. That’s one of the perks, relative to chargers like those from Electrify America (also, Tesla’s uptime for its chargers is higher, which helps with this).

When Tesla started onboarding new automakers, the presumption was that Tesla would have a lot more Superchargers, therefore reducing the total impact on Tesla’s own customers.

That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Here’s what Musk said when the news was announced:

Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2024

The company already brags about having 99.95% uptime, so I’m not sure how much there’s to be gained by going to 100% uptime (well, it’s a 5 basis point improvement, I guess).

Musk did sort of walk this back a little today:

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2024

That’s hard to square with all the landlords reportedly looking for new charging tenants and firing much of that division. Maybe Musk did a full turnaround or maybe this is just more smoke and mirrors. Who knows?

Bad: Other Automakers

Last year I wrote that it seemed like Tesla had won the charging wars after most automakers agreed to adopt Tesla’s NACS charging standard. This would give brands like Chevy and Ford the opportunity to point out to prospective customers that they can access the Supercharging network.

That’ll still be true, but will the expansion of Superchargers match the demand for them? Again, it’s unclear, but Musk inadvertently just made the access to the network seem that much less appealing.

If I were a CEO at one of those other companies I’d be pretty furious.

Ok, so we know how it’s bad for, but who is it good for?

Good: Other Charging Companies

The charging arm of oil company BP has already told landlords it’s happy to pick up those leases, saying it plans to spend $1 billion on charging the rest of this decade.

Good: Tesla

Congrats, you got everyone to switch over to your standard and it seems that you kinda sucker-punched them.

Again, it’s hard to know with anything Elon-related where the truth lies, but saying Tesla will expand slowly and firing everyone isn’t a good sign.

NHTSA To Ford: Ok, But F’real How Does This Work?

While Ford has said it’s working harder to avoid recalls and quality issues, it’s not there yet. If you own a specific vintage of Ford Bronco Sport or Ford Escape you may have had your vehicle in for a recall to fix an issue related to faulty fuel injectors that could result in a fire.

Here’s how the issue is described by NHTSA:

Failure or malfunction of the subject component resulting in a fuel leak, fuel odor inside and/or outside of the vehicle, accumulation of liquid fuel and/or fuel vapor near ignition sources, and under hood fires.

And here’s the suggested fix, via the AP:

Ford’s remedy for the leaks is to add a drain tube to send the gas away from hot surfaces, and a software update to detect a pressure drop in the fuel injection system. If that happens, the software will disable the high pressure fuel pump, reduce engine power and cut temperatures in the engine compartment. Owners also will get a “seek service” message.

And here’s NHTSA’s response to that fix:

Based on our review of the alleged defect, the resulting consequences, and the recall’s remedy program, ODI believes that the remedy program does not address the root cause of the issue and does not proactively call for the replacement of defective fuel injectors prior to their failure; therefore, ODI has decided to investigate the adequacy and various safety concerns of the remedy program described in NHTSA Recall 24V-187.

Ford has to provide a lot of details to NHTSA to explain why the fix will actually work, prove that it doesn’t just spill gasoline everywhere, and show that it’ll reduce fires.

Mazda’s Raking In That Yen

When Toyota announced its annual results (on a March-to-March fiscal year) it admitted it made more profit than any Japanese public company had ever made before. Some of those profits were because the company makes attractive hybrids efficiently. Some of it was Japanese currency fluctuations.

Do you know who else makes hybrids and exports a crap ton of cars? Mazda!

The company just reported its FY 2024 results and it’s all about the operating income, which is up a wild 76.4% year-over-year, or about $1.7 billion. At the same time, revenue went up about 24% to $32 billion.

Mazda makes most of its cars in Japan, meaning the dramatic drop in the yen had an outside impact on the company’s bottom line. Hybrids are also a big part of Mazda’s present and future, and the company is already planning to roll out a hybrid CX-50 in the second half of the year.

Watch The Trailer For No Perfect Formula

I left the production company TangentVector a little less than two years ago to join The Autopian and go on this adventure with all of you. The reality of filmmaking is that the distance between pitching the idea and doing it, as measured in time, is quite large.

One of the last things I briefly worked on was a pitch for this documentary about Cadillac going to Le Mans. Now it’s a whole movie that’ll be airing on Hagerty’s FAST channel later this month at 7:00 PM. Watch the trailer! It’s great and has a very Truth in 24 vibe.

Having made a Le Mans doc with much of this crew I was a little jealous watching them post on Instagram about being there, but also grateful I didn’t have to deal with French rental cars.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

Ezra Furman is so good and her work on the Sex Education soundtracks perfectly encapsulates that feeling of profound teenage yearning the show also does, along with a healthy dose of sweaty angst and gleeful stupidity. I can’t even pick out a best song, just listen to all of them. #teamruby

The Big Question

What’s your favorite motorsport film? It can be a doc or it can be fiction.