Tesla's EV charging team layoffs threaten to slow Biden's program to electrify highways
Tesla's electric-vehicle charging team is scrambling plans for rolling out new fast-charging stations and may delay President Joe Biden's efforts to electrify U.S. highways.
Last year, the Biden administration announced rules for an ambitious plan to expand the country's charging infrastructure and jump-start EV adoption. Under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, the government is doling out $5 billion to states over five years to build 500,000 EV chargers.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessProfessional Certificate in Product ManagementVisitMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIIT DelhiCertificate Programme in Data Science & Machine LearningVisit EV market leader Tesla, which also operates the largest network of fast chargers — called Superchargers — in the U.S. and is the biggest winner so far of those federal funds, was seen as a crucial part of that plan.
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
