A Tesla supplier says it's still in limbo 2 weeks after Elon Musk fired the entire Supercharger team

• Tesla installer Envirospark says it is still in the dark over Elon Musk's Supercharger plans.

• CEO Aaron Luque told BI he hasn't heard from Tesla about the status of their incomplete projects.

• The EV industry is reeling from Musk's decision to lay off Tesla's entire Supercharger team.

Elon Musk's recent firing of Tesla's entire Supercharger team seems to be causing chaos at some of its suppliers.

Aaron Luque, CEO of Tesla charger installer Envirospark, told Business Insider that the company still hasn't heard from Tesla after Musk gutted the company's Supercharger division, with dozens of potential charging sites now stuck in limbo.

"There's no one remaining from the team that we worked with," said Luque. "In terms of formal communication from Tesla, we haven't received anything."

Envirospark, which has built EV charging sites for Tesla for over a decade, told BI that it has 26 projects with the company contracted or under construction.

The status of these sites remains unclear, Luque said, with some of the property owners getting in touch with Envirospark to try and get information after being unable to reach anyone at Tesla.

"We are kind of in a holding pattern," said Luque. "Everything was being quarterbacked by Tesla … we've lost that direction. So we have to wait until we get any further guidance on what the next steps are."

Luque said that the company, which just raised $50 million in investment, has done between 2,500 to 3,000 installations for Tesla over the past 10 years in the US and Canada.

Elon Musk's decision to lay off Tesla's entire Supercharger team, reportedly around 500 employees, shocked the EV industry.

Musk has since said that Tesla remains committed to its highly successful Supercharger network, posting on X on Friday that the automaker would spend over $500 million on the network this year.

The Tesla CEO also posted shortly after the layoffs that Tesla still planned to grow the network, just at a slower pace with more focus on expanding existing locations.

However, his comments have done little to quell the concerns of installers after what Luque described as a "whirlwind" few weeks.

Andres Pinter, the co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, who previously called the layoffs a "sharp kick in the pants," told BI over email that Tesla got in touch around a week after the news of layoffs was released.

He said Tesla reassured the company that the carmaker would move forward with in-process Supercharger sites and was planning to build new ones, without providing specifics.

"It sounds like an existing Tesla team from a different department has been inserted to manage the charging division," said Pinter.

He said it was unclear whether this management move was temporary or permanent, adding that Bullet EV was now "back in the Tesla business but has a serious case of whiplash."

'Our phone has been ringing off the hook'

The sudden chaos surrounding Tesla's charging operations has sparked the interest of competitors, who previously stood little chance of competing with Tesla's extensive public charging network.

BP said it is eager to snap up Tesla Supercharging sites for its own charging network following the layoffs, per Bloomberg, and is "actively seeking" to hire talent to enable it to grow.

"I think it's absolutely going to be a challenge for Tesla," said Luque, adding that Musk's layoffs have sparked a talent war for ex-Tesla Supercharging staff.

Envirospark is among those now aggressively hiring former Tesla employees, with Luque describing the situation as the "single greatest talent acquisition opportunity we've ever seen."

His comments were echoed by Pinter, who described Musk's reorganization of Tesla as a "blessing in disguise" for Bullet EV Charging.

"We have already hired several members of the former Tesla charging team and are diversifying our customer base to focus more on fleet and auto dealership charging," Pinter said.

"My company is also keeping an eye out for other contractors who may be willing to sell their businesses in light of Tesla's unexpected move. Our phone has been ringing off the hook since last week," he added.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside normal working hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider