After layoffs, Musk says Tesla to spend US$500 million on charging network

AUSTIN: Tesla will spend more than US$500 million (RM2.4bil) this year to expand its fast-charging network, CEO Elon Musk said on Friday, days after abruptly laying off employees who were running the business.

"Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over US$500 million expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of new chargers this year," Musk said in a post on X.

"That's just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher," he said.

After the layoffs last week, Musk said Tesla planned to expand the Supercharger network but at a slower pace for new locations.

EV makers have been adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard, making the company's superchargers closer to becoming the industry standard at the expense of the rival Combined Charging System.

However, Musk's decision to gut the electric-vehicle charging team is scrambling plans for rolling out new fast-charging stations and may delay President Joe Biden's efforts to electrify US highways.

The Biden administration has doled out US$5 billion (RM24bil) to states over five years to build 500,000 EV chargers as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, and Tesla has been among the biggest winners of those federal funds so far.