Tesla’s energy storage business is booming, but solar is gone
Tesla’s energy storage business is booming, and it is just beginning. However, the beginning of Tesla’s energy storage growth also appears to be the end of Tesla’s solar business.
Don’t get fooled by the fact that Tesla’s energy storage deployment was down sequentially from 9.4 to 6.9 GWh.
Sequentially, Tesla’s deployment might look bad because it is working on giant battery projects. If a few of them get delayed for reasons that are often out of Tesla’s control, it can’t account for the deployment even though it might have delivered the Megapacks.
It’s better to look at the year-over-year growth, which was at 75% last quarter.
It’s also only the beginning of Tesla’s growth in energy storage deployment. This week, Tesla disclosed that its Lathrop Megafactory is now producing Megapacks at its full planned capacity of 40 GWh per year.
Megapack alone could contribute 10 GWh of deployment per quarter. Tesla also recently disclosed Powerwall reaching a production capacity of 700,000 Powerwall per year, which can contribute over 2 GWh of energy storage deployment per quarter.
Furthermore, Tesla disclosed that its Shanghai Megafactory, which aims to produce Megapacks in China, is on track to start its first shipment in Q1 2025.
Tesla disclosed all of this in its Q3 2024 shareholders’ presentation:
The Energy business achieved a record gross margin of 30.5% in Q3, a sequential increase of 596 bps, despite lower Megapack volumes. Powerwall achieved record deployments in Q3 for the second quarter in a row. Ramp of Powerwall 3 and the Lathrop Megafactory continued successfully – with Lathrop demonstrating 200 Megapack production (40 GWh annual run rate) in a single week. As of Q3, over 100,000 Powerwalls were enrolled in Virtual Power Plant programs, delivering additional financial value to owners while providing much-needed support to the grid during periods of stress. The Shanghai Megafactory remains on track to begin shipping Megapacks in Q1 2025.
This was Tesla’s entire ‘Energy Generation and Storage’ section; as you can see, there’s nothing about energy generation. It’s just about energy storage.
Tesla’s “energy generation” business has been solar, but it’s now going away.
Over the last few years, we have reported on how Tesla has been phasing out this solar business. It’s now so small that Tesla doesn’t even bother reporting its solar deployment.
The company still deploys solar inverters and solar roofs, but almost entirely through third-party installers, and it’s clearly becoming not important to the company.
The word ‘solar’ wasn’t mentioned once during Tesla’s Q3 2024 conference call.
Tesla’s goal now is to own the “brain” behind distributed energy systems to enable its virtual power plant products.
Electrek’s Take
At this point, it’s not impossible to see Tesla deploy around 60 GWh of energy storage next year. That would be truly impressive. Congratulations to everyone involved.
On the solar front, I think we need to start grieving Tesla’s solar business. It’s disappointing how it happened.
For those not aware, Tesla’s acquired its solar business through the controversial acquisition of SolarCity, which was founded by Musk’s cousins and financed by Musk himself.
Many saw it as a bailout, and Tesla shareholders sued Musk for it, but he defended himself by claiming that even though solar deployment has gone down since Tesla acquired SolarCity, it was still an important part of its business.
As soon as he won the lawsuit, Tesla started to stop reporting solar deployment and phased out the business.
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James Murdoch, a Tesla board member and friend of CEO Elon Musk, has confirmed that he sold about $13 million in stock today as the stock (TSLA) crashed.
There has been a lot of insider trading at Tesla lately, and by trading, we mean selling – cause no insider is ever buying at Tesla.
We recently reported on Kimball Musk, Elon’s brother, and Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Taneja Vaibhav recently selling ahead of a recent drop in the company’s stock price.
Tesla’s chairwoman, Robyn Denholm, also sold $33 million worth of Tesla shares last week and over $100 million in the last 3 months.
Now, it’s James Murdoch’s turn. The Tesla board member just confirmed, through a required SEC filing, that he sold 54,776 Tesla shares for just over $13 million today:
He sold as Tesla’s stock crashed 15% today. It is now down more than 50% from its all-time high just a few months ago.
Murdoch was appointed to Tesla’s board in 2017.
He is better known as the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former CEO of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
Murdoch was one of the Tesla board directors who was forced to return almost $1 billion in cash and stock options to Tesla as part of a settlement for over-compensation.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla insiders are unloading, and those are just the ones we know about. Public companies only have to report insider trading for board directors and listed top executives.
For the latter, Tesla purposefully only lists 3 people: Elon, Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s CFO, and Tom Zhu, whose role at Tesla has bit quite fluid in recent years.
Therefore, we don’t know about the dozens of other top executives potentially selling their shares right now amid a giant correction.
It’s really suspicious because there are clear top leaders at Tesla who are often on Tesla’s earnings calls, and they are not even listed, like Lars Moravy, for example.
But it’s par for the course at Tesla, which has some of the worst corporate governance I have ever seen. It’s truly shameful.
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Environment
Mercedes’ new electric people mover is coming soon: Here’s a sneak peek at the luxe EV van
The next generation of Mercedes-Benz luxury vans is almost here. Mercedes’ first luxury electric van, based on its new VAN.EA platform, is now in Arjeplog, Sweden, for winter testing. The new platform will serve as the base for upcoming VIP private vans, high-end limousines, luxury all-arounders, and much more.
What we know about Mercedes’ new luxury electric van
Mercedes is already a leading van maker, both for business and private use. Starting next year, all electric Mercedes’ vans will launch on its new Van Electric Architecture (VAN.EA).
After unveiling the platform almost two years ago, Mathias Geisen, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, said “VAN.EA clearly underscores our aspiration to ‘Lead in Electric.” He explained that the purpose-built EV architecture supports both mid and large vans.
With a modular design, Mercedes can easily swap out sections to create a different design. The platform consists of three blocks, or modules.
The first block has the electric powertrain while the middle module determines the van’s dimensions. At the rear, the final module can add another electric motor, giving it AWD capabilities.
With 4MATIC AWD, Mercedes claims the new architecture significantly expands driving range and ensures the vans “meet the highest standards regardless of weather conditions.”
Although final specs will be revealed closer to launch, the electric vans will be based on an 800V platform, suggesting relatively fast charging speeds.
The luxury vans will also be loaded with Mercedes’ new operating system (MB.OS), it’s powerful new in-vehicle software that powers all functions like infotainment, autonomous driving, and more.
After the electric van began testing on public roads late last year, Mercedes said it was headed to Sweden for winter testing before its official debut next year.
Mercedes plans to launch several versions for private and business use. The VAN.EA-P is designed for those looking for a mobile office, family activity vehicle, etc., while the VAN.EA-C is for commercial use, such as courier, express, and parcel delivery vehicles. It can even support larger vehicles like campers or RVs.
Mercedes aims for 20% of van sales to be electric by the end of next year. By 2030, the luxury brand wants half of all van sales to be EV.
Source: Mercedes-Benz
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Environment
BlackRock’s Fink says Trump deportations will have severe impact on agriculture, construction
HOUSTON — BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Monday that President Donald Trump‘s deportation policy will have a severe impact on the agriculture and construction sectors, which could lead to elevated inflation in the near term.
“I think that over the next six to nine months, we’re going to see a little more elevated inflation,” Fink said the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference. “I do believe deportations and the speed at which it is happening is going to have severe impacts on the agricultural sector and the construction sector.”
Fink said CEOs in the agriculture sector have told him that about 70% of the men and women who work in the industry were not born in the U.S. This raises the question of whether the U.S. will have enough labor to harvest the crops when spring arrives, Fink said.
“With the whole idea that we’re going to have to use private capital to build out this economy — are we going to have enough workers,” Fink asked. “I’ve even told members of the Trump team that we’re going to run out of electricians as we build out AI data centers — we just don’t have enough,” the CEO said.
This potential labor shortage will contribute to inflation, Fink said. Over the longer term, however, the U.S. could see “big deflation because of the advancement of AI and robots and how that’s going to reshape the economy,” the CEO said.
The deflationary pressure that the U.S. experienced over the past two decades was due in part to the importation of cheaper goods from overseas though this hurt U.S. workers, Fink said. The shift to rising nationalism around the world will have an impact on prices, he said.
“When I go to Washington, they talk about these policies,” Fink said. “I ask at what cost are you willing to tolerate that. “Yes, we may have opportunities to create better and more robust jobs, but then the offside of that will be, it will probably create a little more elevated inflation in the short run.”
Trump’s deportation policy is occurring at the same time the president is imposing tariffs on major U.S. trade partners. The president has slapped 20% tariffs on China. He has paused tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods that are compliant with the deal that governs trade in North America. But Trump is threatening what he calls “reciprocal tariffs” in April.
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