EV giant Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) said on Tuesday that the number of its supercharger connectors globally rose in the second quarter, despite the company laying off several members of its supercharging team in April. The growth rate, however, has slowed significantly.
What Happened: Tesla said that the number of supercharger connectors at the end of the second quarter was 59,596, 24% higher than the corresponding quarter of 2023.
The growth rate, however, has slowed significantly since the company announced layoffs of at least 10% of its global workforce in April. The layoffs impacted 500 members of the supercharging team and Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's then Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure, left the company.
Superchargers grew only 3.5% from the end of the first quarter to the second, significantly lower than the quarter-on-quarter growth of 7.4% in the number of superchargers recorded through the fourth quarter. Even through the first quarter of 2024, superchargers grew by 4.9%.
Why It Matters: However, during Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed rumors on the death of its supercharger network as "greatly exaggerated."
"Our supercharger network is continuing to grow," Musk said.
The company continues to grow its supercharger network while keeping an eye on capital efficiency and the places they are deployed, Musk said while adding that it will deploy more "working" superchargers this year than the rest of the industry combined.
Tesla will invest $500 million in expanding the network this year, Musk said, reiterating his investment goal from May.