Former Tesla charging members join Revel

Three of Tesla’s top former Tesla charging members in the Northeast have joined Revel to continue deploying EV charging stations.

In April, Elon Musk fired Tesla’s entire 500-people charging team to make an example out of them and their head, Rebecca Tinnuci, who pushed back against further layoffs.

The automaker has since rehired some of them since, after all, they built the best fast-charging network in the world, and it was a ridiculous decision to fire them all.

But the laid-off employees have become prime talent acquisition targets for other charging companies. Revel in New York got the message.

After Tesla fired the team, it quickly started pulling out of leases for upcoming charging stations in New York, where Revel operates.

At the time, Revel told us that it was considering taking over those sites and hiring some of Tesla’s former charging team members.

The company is now following through as Revel announced hiring three former Tesla charging team members.

Revel confirmed that it hired Ed Noseworthy to be its new Director of Design & Construction. Prior to joining Revel, Noseworthy spent almost 7 years at Tesla where he was senior design lead for Superchargers in the Northeast.

The company also hired Henry Misas, who was Senior Design Manager at Tesla and was behind the installation of over 1,000 Superchargers in the Northeast.

Finally, Revel confirmed that Tedy Filis, who was Regional Construction Lead – Charging Infrastructure at Tesla, has also joined the team.

Frank Reig, Co-Founder & CEO of Revel, commented on the new hires:

Revel is building fast charging in the densest, most congested places in America. It’s not easy, but it’s absolutely necessary. These are not one-size-fits-all projects, to get them done we need creativity and hustle. Henry, Tedy and Ed each have those qualities, making them a great fit for our team, and I’m excited to see what they bring as we undertake a major expansion over the next year.

Revel also confirmed that it is actively pursuing Tesla’s abandoned sites in New York.

The company operates large-scale charging sites in New York that are open to the public, but they are primarily designed for ride-hailing drivers, including those on Revel’s own service using an all-electric fleet.

Electrek’s Take

I still can’t believe that Elon did that: firing the team that undeniably built the best and most reliable fast-charging network in the world.

But when he did it, I said that the only good thing that I could see come out of this would be that other charging companies could snap up the talent and use their deep experience in deploying record number of charging stations and try to replicate that.

It will take a while for them to get going again, but it looks like Revel saw the opportunity.