![]() ![]() Panasonic is Tesla’s sole battery supplier for its electric car business, but Musk last month blamed Panasonic for EV production delays. ![]() Panasonic’s move to diversify its solar customers is the latest sign of the company falling out of step with its longtime partner. Since Tesla purchased SolarCity in the fourth quarter of 2016, installations have dropped more than 76 percent, according to company financial disclosures.Īfter gutting its solar sales team and ending its retail relationship with Home Depot, Tesla last month announced a plan to counter the downward spiral by offering cut-rate prices on standardized rooftop systems and requiring would-be customers to order solar products online. Tesla last month reported a 36 percent slide in its overall solar sales in the first quarter, adding to previous big drops since the SolarCity acquisition. Panasonic also produces traditional solar panels at the Buffalo plant for Tesla, but has been selling many of them to other buyers since at least last year due to low demand from the California car company, Reuters reported in August 2018. Department of Commerce in October 2018 that foreign demand for U.S.-made solar cells had sprung up after the Trump Administration imposed tariffs on overseas-made panels in 2018. Panasonic had said in a filing with the U.S. Panasonic spokesman Alberto Canal declined to comment on the company’s sales to Tesla, but confirmed that Panasonic was seeking to use its Buffalo operations to fulfill demand for U.S.-made solar cells from foreign buyers. Before the merger, Musk had served as chairman of SolarCity’s board of directors, and his cousin, Lyndon Rive, was the company’s CEO. Musk once called the deal a “no brainer” - but some investors panned it as a bailout of an affiliated firm at the expense of Tesla shareholders. The situation raises new questions about the viability of cash-strapped Tesla’s solar business. But a company official said in an email “the number of solar roofs you cite in the story is low and unrepresentative as we are actively installing the Solar Roof in eight states currently.” Tesla declined to comment on the company’s purchases of cells from Panasonic and would not provide figures for Solar Roof installations. Only a few others were connected in the northeastern United States, according to a former Tesla employee with knowledge of the matter, who was laid off during staff cuts earlier this year and asked not to be named. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk billed the product as a cornerstone of the strategy behind the acquisition - selling a low-carbon lifestyle to eco-conscious consumers who could use the power from their Solar Roof to charge their Tesla electric vehicle.īut the company has installed them on just a handful of rooftops nationwide so far after production line troubles and a gutting of Tesla’s solar sales team.Ĭalifornia state data shows 21 Solar Roof systems were connected by the state’s three investor-owned utilities as of Feb. Tesla planned to use them in its Solar Roof, a system meant to look like normal roof tiles. Cells are components that convert the sun’s light into electricity they are combined to make solar panels. ![]() When the two firms announced the partnership in 2016, the companies said they would collaborate on cell and module production and Tesla would make a long-term commitment to buy the cells from Panasonic. The rest are going largely to foreign buyers, according to a Panasonic letter to U.S. Tesla has only sporadically purchased solar cells produced by its partner in the factory, Panasonic Corp, according to a Buffalo solar factory employee speaking on condition of anonymity. ![]() solar business, which the electric car maker entered in 2016 with its controversial $2.6 billion purchase of SolarCity. The exporting underscores the depth of Tesla’s troubles in the U.S. Gigafactory 2, also known as RiverBend, a joint venture with Panasonic to produce solar panels and roof tiles in Buffalo, New York, U.S., August 2, 2018. FILE PHOTO: Flags fly over the Tesla Inc. ![]()
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