The day before Elon Musk fired virtually all of Tesla¡¯s electric vehicle charging division last month, they had high hopes as charging chief Rebecca Tinucci went to meet with the billionaire businessman about the network¡¯s future, four former staffers said.

After Tinucci had cut between 15% and 20% of staffers two weeks earlier, part of much wider layoffs, they believed Musk would affirm plans for a massive expansion of the charging network.

The meeting could not have gone worse.