Tag: SolarCity

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Tesla starts taking orders for solar roofs

Tesla’s demonstration house features solar glass roof tiles that can generate electricity. “That’s a real fake house,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk joked. (TED via YouTube)

Tesla has started taking orders for traditional-looking glass roof tiles that soak up solar power to generate electricity.

Installations are to start next month, beginning with California and gradually rolling out to other U.S. markets, Tesla said. Overseas markets will be added to the mix next year, said Elon Musk, Tesla’s billionaire CEO.

“I think it will be great,” Musk tweeted.

In a blog posting, Tesla said “the typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot” for the product it calls Solar Roof. That’s significantly more than the cost of a traditional asphalt roof, based on Consumer Reports’ estimates, but closer to competitive in price when the anticipated electric-bill savings are factored in.

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Tesla-SolarCity merger takes effect

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the SolarCity merger will lead to increased synergies. (Tesla via YouTube)

The $2 billion Tesla-SolarCity merger went into effect today, just four days after Tesla Motors’ shareholders gave their approval.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said SolarCity is now its wholly owned subsidiary. The all-stock deal converted each SolarCity share into 0.11 Tesla shares, and SolarCity is no longer listed in the NASDAQ market quotes.

For what it’s worth, the final trading price for SolarCity shares was $20.34 as of Nov. 18. At the end of today’s trading, Tesla shares were down 50 cents for the day at $184.52.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the merger would create synergies between Tesla’s lines of business, which market electric cars and electricity storage systems, and SolarCity’s line of electricity-generating solar panels.

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Shareholders OK Tesla-SolarCity merger

Elon Musk unveils Tesla’s Powerwall 2 battery and SolarCity’s roof panels in Los Angeles in October. (Tesla via YouTube)

Tesla’s shareholders overwhelmingly approved a merger with SolarCity today, opening the way for consummating the marriage of the electric-car company and the solar-panel venture within days.

The vote was more than 85 percent in favor, excluding the shares held by billionaire Elon Musk and other executives affiliated with the companies, Tesla said in a statement. Musk is the CEO of Tesla as well as the chairman of SolarCity.

Musk and other executives talked up the deal in advance of the vote, saying that it would take advantage of the synergies offered by each company. In addition to manufacturing electric-powered vehicles, Tesla is ramping up production of its Powerwall storage batteries. Meanwhile, SolarCity has become America’s top solar-panel installation company.

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Elon Musk holds forth on the election and more

Elon Musk is the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. (Credit: AGU file)

Today Elon Musk laid out his views on electricity-generating solar roofs, the Tesla-SolarCity merger, SpaceX’s return to flight and artificial intelligence during an extraordinary 30-minute telephone interview on CNBC.

His timeliest comments may relate to next week’s presidential election: Musk gave a lukewarm endorsement to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“I would say it’s not going to make much of a difference one way or the other, honestly,” he said. “I think Hillary’s economic policies and her environmental policies particularly are the right ones, you know? Yeah. Also, I don’t think this is the finest moment of our democracy in general. But so it goes.”

So what about GOP candidate Donald Trump? “I feel a bit stronger that probably he’s not the right guy,” Musk said. “He just doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”

Musk – who’s the billionaire CEO of the SpaceX rocket venture and the Tesla electric-car concern as well as chairman of SolarCity, a producer of solar panels – touched on a wide range of topics, with occasional commentary from one of Tesla’s biggest investors, billionaire Ron Baron.

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Feds approve $2.6 billion Tesla-SolarCity merger

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk talks about the Model 3 during its unveiling in April. (Credit: Tesla)

The Federal Trade Commission has given its approval for Tesla Motors’ acquisition of the SolarCity power panel company, saying that the combination would create no antitrust concerns.

The go-ahead removes another hurdle to the $2.6 billion all-stock deal, which was proposed in June. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is the largest investor in both companies. He’s the CEO of Tesla, and the chairman of SolarCity.

Musk argues that the deal will create a consumer-friendly, one-stop energy shop for electric cars, solar panels and battery storage systems.

The next hurdle is a vote by the disinterested shareholders of the two companies, which will exclude the shares held by Musk and other executives. That vote is expected to clear the way for the merger to take effect later this year.

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Elon Musk touts power-generating solar roofs

SolarCity says it will start making integrated power-generating roofs next year. (Credit: SolarCity)

The bad news is that SolarCity, the power-generating company that has Elon Musk as its chairman, is losing money. The good news is that it’ll be rolling out a new product: a roof with built-in solar arrays.

“It’s not a ‘thing’ on the roof, it is the roof,” Musk said Aug. 9 during a conference call with analysts.

He said the integrated, power-generating roofing structure would be a “fundamental part of achieving a differentiated product strategy” for SolarCity.

Peter Rive, SolarCity’s chief technology officer and Musk’s cousin, said the company would ramp up production of the roofing components at its factory in Buffalo, N..Y., in the second quarter of next year.

SolarCity is counting on such innovations to boost its sales as it heads toward a $2.6 billion merger with the Tesla electric-car and battery company, which has Musk as its CEO.

 

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Tesla, SolarCity strike $2.6 billion merger deal

A Tesla electric car is parked on an overlook with a view of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 facility in Nevada. (Credit: Tesla Motors)

The boards of directors for Tesla and SolarCity, two companies that have billionaire Elon Musk as a top executive, have given the green light for a $2.6 billion merger.

The two companies said the combination would create “the world’s only vertically integrated sustainable energy company,” bringing together Tesla’s electric car line and its home battery offerings with SolarCity’s power-generating business.

“By joining forces, we can operate more efficiently and fully integrate our products, while providing customers with an aesthetically beautiful and simple one-stop solar + storage experience: one installation, one service contract, one phone app,”Tesla and SolarCity said in a joint press release.

The approvals came after a review of Tesla’s merger proposal, the terms of which were laid out publicly last month. Musk helped orchestrate the deal, but he stayed out of the review or the board vote to head off conflict-of-interest concerns. He serves as the CEO of Tesla, and he’s the chairman of SolarCity as well as the biggest shareholder of both companies.

In a tweet, Musk emphasized that his privately held space venture, SpaceX, does not figure in the deal and would never merge with Tesla.

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Elon Musk unveils new Tesla master plan

Tesla’s lines of business include the Model S electric sedan as well as the Powerwall home battery system, seen at left. (Credit: Tesla)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has just shared his once-secret master plan for the electric-car company, which he now casts as a solar power and energy storage company as well. Here is the plan, as summarized by Musk in a post on the Tesla site.

  • Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage
  • Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments
  • Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning
  • Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it

The expansion of Tesla’s product line will include “heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport,” Musk says in the post. “Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year. We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.”

– Story by Todd Bishop and Alan Boyle

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