According to a recent report by Reuters, Tesla will soon close about a dozen solar installation facilities across the country.
“About 60 installation facilities remain open, according to an internal company list reviewed by Reuters. An internal company email named 14 facilities slated for closure, but the other list included only 13 of those locations.” – Reuters
Tesla told Reuters that the cuts were in line with the broader 9% workforce reduction the company announced this month.“We continue to expect that Tesla’s solar and battery business will be the same size as automotive over the long term,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.
But that’s easier said than done, considering the furious rate at which the automotive business is expanding, while Tesla’s solar business continues to downsize.
SolarCity had 15,273 employees in 2015; by the end of 2016, it only had 12,243 employees. Tesla completed its $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity in November, 2016. With Tesla hunting for savings, Tesla’s solar business might be hit hard as US residential solar business continues to slow down.
“Despite a relatively stable policy environment, and solar having reached grid parity in half of all U.S. states, residential solar installations fell by 16 percent on an annual basis for a total of 2,227 megawatts deployed in 2017.”
Going forward, we will be far more rigorous about expenditures. I have asked the Tesla finance team to comb through every expense worldwide, no matter how small, and cut everything that doesn’t have a strong value justification.
All capital or other expenditures above a million dollars, or where a set of related expenses may accumulate to a million dollars over the next 12 months, should be considered on hold until explicitly approved by me.
– Elon Musk’s email to employees (April 2018)
