Tesla to Spend 'Well Over' $500 Million on Charger Network This Year — Update

By Kimberley Kao

Tesla plans to spend more than $500 million to expand its electric-vehicle charging network this year, Chief Executive Elon Musk said, days after the carmaker laid off much of the team responsible for creating the largest such network in the U.S.

In a post on his social media platform X on Friday, Musk wrote, "just to reiterate," Tesla will spend "well over" a half billion dollars to expand its Supercharger network, including creating thousands of new chargers this year.

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

The world's most-valuable automaker last week laid off much of its Supercharger team, spawning industry fears of a pullback in a network seen as vital to broader EV adoption in the United States. The company started building its charging network over a decade ago and today has thousands of charging stations across the country.

Tesla has been opening up its network to other kinds of cars and winning public funding for chargers, a boon to the Biden administration's plans to build out national charging infrastructure.

Musk said last week that Tesla still planned to grow its charging network, but at a slower pace for new locations and with more focus on the expansion of existing sites.

Tesla last month reported that first-quarter profit had sunk to its lowest level since 2021.

It said in filings at the time that it was working to expand its charging network, in addition to investing in autonomous driving, other artificial intelligence, new battery cell technology and new products, among others. It forecast capital expenditure this year at about $10 billion, and in a range of $8 billion to $10 billion each year the following two years.

Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 10, 2024 06:46 ET (10:46 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.