The News Wheel
No Comments

Tesla Offers to Buy Solar Panel Maker SolarCity

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page
Tesla Motors Badge Letter T logo

Tesla Motors’ T-Shaped Badge
Photo: EV Stories

There is one particularly ideal situation for environmentally-conscious electric car owners: In addition to reducing greenhouse emissions by driving an electric car, you cut yourself off from a power grid often fueled by burning coal or other polluting substances by harvesting energy from the sun through roof-mounted solar panels, stored in a large battery to provide you with electricity.

Now Tesla Motors has decided that it wants to be the one to give its customers that ideal, all in one go. Musk announced that Tesla would acquire SolarCity, one of the largest solar power providers in the nation, which happens to have his cousin as CEO and co-founder, and which also happens to have Musk as chairman.

However, despite the family ties, it seems that Musk has set his sights on selling the whole package at once: an all-electric Tesla vehicle, with solar panels to power it and a Powerwall to store the juice.

Two groups in particular weren’t terribly enthused by the announcement, though: stockholders and analysts. Analysts wondered if Musk would leverage too much stock to buy SolarCity, which would require another stock offering that would dilute the value of Tesla shares even further. As a result, Tesla stock fell in the few days afterward. On the other hand, SolarCity stock rose in response to the proposed deal (a pretty good thing for a company whose stock has been steadily falling as its losses have grown).

News Sources: Green Car Reports, USA Today