Tesla Ventures Out of Automotive Industry; Enters the Energy Sector

Solar City

Tesla—a name synonymous with the production of electric car manufacturing—recently announced that it’s planning to enter into the energy sector.

“The world does not lack for automotive companies,” Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said, as he announced his company’s bid to purchase SolarCity. “The world lacks for sustainable energy companies.”

Over two months since Tesla Motors unveiled the Model 3, the company since received more than 400,000 deposits for the much anticipated $30,000 electric sedan that’s slated to begin production by late 2017. Along with Tesla, the world’s entire automotive industry is putting the production of electric vehicles into overdrive, in hopes of being able to lower the cost of electric offerings to be at par with gas-powered vehicles.

But while this vision does indeed have immense environmental benefits, it won’t really do much if the industry continues to be reliant on fossil fuels for energy.

Tesla Energy

Last year, Musk announced Tesla Energy, which then introduced massive home batteries, ideal for residential and industrial energy storage. The acquisition of SolarCity will supposedly offer a more complete solution as they work towards providing alternatives to fossil fuels.

Currently, Musk owns 22 percent of the company and already sits on the board. And should the deal come through, we could one day walk in shops to purchase rooftop solar panels that can easily turn sunlight into electricity, use that energy on your electric cars, and store everything left over in a 6.4 kWh battery.

Essentially, the market for solar panels is being carved by those who are already looking into buying electric cars, and vise versa. Which would make a lot of business sense. But critics are also quick to point out that Musk could be overreaching as he tries to move outside of his niche.