Tesla lays off hundreds as it cuts entire Supercharger team

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) -- Tesla Inc. has eliminated its entire Supercharger team, which is responsible for building an electric-vehicle charging network in the U.S. that major carmakers plan to use, according to media reports and social media posts from employees.

The Austin-based company laid off about 500 people, according to The New York Times, citing an email sent to employees by CEO Elon Musk. Musk said in the email that he would dissolve the "entire group" and the company would finish charging stations under construction and build some new ones "where critical."

It's unclear how many of those positions were based in the Austin area and if they were counted in the company's mass layoff reported earlier in April that impacted nearly 2,700 employees at its electric vehicle factory in eastern Travis County, or about 12% of its workforce there. The cuts — which marked the largest mass layoff in Austin's modern history — were part of CEO Elon Musk's plan to dismiss more than 10% of its global workforce of over 140,000.

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