Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) opened 2,800 superchargers in the third quarter, marking a growth of 23% year-on-year, the EV giant said in a post on social media platform X last week.

What Happened: As of the end of the third quarter of 2023, Tesla had 51,105 supercharger connectors around the globe. Now, the company has over 62,000 supercharger connectors, implying that the network is growing.

However, the rate of growth of the supercharger network has seemingly 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.

The supercharger network grew only by about 4.7% quarter-on-quarter in the three months through the end of September. This is lower than the sequential growth rate of 7.4% achieved in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Why It Matters: 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.

Last month, Musk said that Tesla is opening a "lot more superchargers," without detailing whether this is in addition to the $500 million investment pledged to expand the network this year or included within.

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