from Hacker News

Tesla and Solar City Combine

by chasingtheflow on 8/1/16, 12:03 PM with 139 comments

  • by icc97 on 8/1/16, 2:24 PM

    Brand wise I can certainly see how this is beneficial to Solar City. Tesla as a brand has taken off hugely, so I can see it being easier to sell 'Tesla Solar' which is an easy benefit to Solar City as a company.

    Certainly for any global expansion, I don't think many people outside the US know about Solar City. Where I am in Belgium, Tesla cars are about as prevelant on the roads as Range Rovers and everyone from my nephew to my mother in law knows about it.

    As they also say it's a way to get people to the Tesla Stores which should benefit Tesla in a similar way to Apple stores.

  • by bronz on 8/1/16, 7:39 PM

    to all the people who are saying that this is shady or that this resembles fraud: what the hell are you thinking? here is a man who twice bet his personal fortune on these companies with no other apparent motive besides making the world a better place. in the case of tesla, elon musk could have lost not only his fortune but everything.

    if elon musk wanted to make more money he could have done it in other ways with much less risk. founding spacex and tesla only make sense if there was some genuine desire to make the world a better place. a man who put everything on the line for these visions and nearly lost everything would, upon surpassing everyones expecations or even their wildest dreams, suddenly become a shady fraudster and initiate a shady scheme to make a little money? that makes no sense.

    i get so mad at people who are constantly detracting from tesla or evs in general. it is so ironic that the one company that isnt trying to fuck people over, perhaps the only large company that has nothing but the betterment of the world on the agenda, is constantly berated and dismissed by everyone.

  • by chollida1 on 8/1/16, 1:07 PM

    link to the investor presentation if you want to read it:

    http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/254764622...

    After the deal closes, expected to be Q4 2016, the ownership split will be:

    93.5% Tesla / 6.5% SolarCity

    Interestingly, this is an all shares deal. With most people assuming Telsa will need to raise another large round soon to fund full scale production of the Model 3 it will be interesting to see what sort of terms, if any, Tesla will need to give investors to raise.

    Current shareholders don't seem too put off the by constant dilution of this acquisition or the constant equities raises. Tesla's short interest is high as always, so they continue to be one of the most polarizing companies around:)

    Fun note in the presentation, Solar City has a shop window in the deal where they can take this deal and shop it to other companies to try and get a better deal. Anyone want to take a bet as to whether or not they actually try and shop this deal at all?

  • by swalsh on 8/1/16, 4:40 PM

    Electric cars are filled with potential to have a decently large positive ecological impact, but as long as they're running on electricity generated by coal, they're just shifting the source of emissions.

    However, even if we did move ALL cars off gas, the emissions problem is still very large, and solving it could reduce emissions by 65% [1]. This seems to be a 2 pronged approach, reduce car emissions, and reduce generic energy emissions. This alone won't solve the crisis, but it's a significant contribution.

    https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html

  • by impostervt on 8/1/16, 12:58 PM

    This is the first move by Musk that I feel is a bit shady. It seems like it's in his best interest, from what I've read, but maybe not in every one else's...

    Though the hyperloop is a bit shady too. I guess he's not really involved in it anymore though.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDwe2M-LDZQ

  • by drwdal on 8/1/16, 12:54 PM

    I don't particularly see this as a bad thing, since they'll be able to add more Supercharger stations for the future.
  • by overcast on 8/1/16, 2:06 PM

    Wasn't this basically expected/intended/inevitable? Considering Musk was one of the founders, along with his cousins that currently run it.
  • by sebringj on 8/1/16, 3:31 PM

    Lock-in on old tech has been the main worry for me in terms of installing panels on my home. An upgrade option would be a done deal for me, especially since its Tesla.
  • by yladiz on 8/1/16, 4:29 PM

    I wonder if this will be approved by the shareholders, considering that Solar City is losing $300 million in value and it is an all shares merger. I'm hesitant to say it'll go through since I don't think investors like the news, as both stocks are down today and both took a huge hit around when this was announced (Telsa was -2%, but bounced back to -0.5% and Solar City is currently -6%, and falling).
  • by ww520 on 8/1/16, 5:53 PM

    I just want to know what the cost is now for a combined solar panel installation and battery storage for couple days of home use. I assume the Tesla/Solar City deal make more sense with the combine of solar installation plus the Gigafactory, rather than with Tesla the car.
  • by jharohit on 8/1/16, 3:24 PM

    I wonder if they combine these two with SpaceX - Elon Musk might well become the first trillionaire.
  • by jeffmanu on 8/2/16, 12:18 AM

    What I like about this is that it's an integration of Elon's ethos. If you owned Starbucks and the biggest coffee plantation wouldn't you find a way to merge them?
  • by ilaksh on 8/1/16, 8:55 PM

    Maybe you could just use your car as the battery charged by your solar panels, instead of buying a Powerwall? And then run your house off of it. At least on the weekends. Or maybe more often if you don't have to drive every day.

    Because the Tesla battery is 60 kW, so its basically like 10 Powerwalls that you can drive around. Instead of storing it on the wall in your garage, it is lying horizontal in the car.

    Sort of amazing that people are not making this connection.

  • by manmal on 8/1/16, 1:47 PM

    Can anyone explain to me why SolarCity's stock is going down right now? (-5,2% in the last 24h).
  • by perseusprime11 on 8/1/16, 1:19 PM

    They had to...remember the recently unveiled master plan?
  • by CptJamesCook on 8/1/16, 6:49 PM

    Does Solar City have plans to go beyond the leasing model?
  • by afsina on 8/1/16, 1:00 PM

    They lost me on ".. achieve cost synergies .."
  • by mhurron on 8/1/16, 1:58 PM

    ... to form Voltron.

    Look, I could not help but make that stupid joke when it fits so well.

  • by nstj on 8/1/16, 4:35 PM

    Elon taking delivery of a McLaren F1 in 1999 [0]. Quite prescient really.

    [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSHUha9ABNY