Tesla Closing a Dozen Solar Facilities in Nine States

[Adam Varga + 123]

Tesla plans to close more than a dozen solar installation facilities across 9 states, as a part of the 9% workforce cuts announced last week. These cuts will affect facilities of the former SolarCity, which merged with Tesla in 2016. Tesla declined to comment on which sites it planned to shut down or, more important, how many employees would lose their jobs. 

[Stormysaga + 62]

“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.

Rut row - and I think their auto side will declare bankruptcy.
 

[LAOIL + 33]

Definitely Tesla bankruptcy is not far.  This company has survived due to easy money in the markets.  Once credit becomes tight,  Tesla goes up in bk.

[BlackTortoise + 103]

Tesla is obviously trying to reduce its operating expenses to get its financial rating higher for loans. And the easiest way to reduce costs quickly is to lay off people. 

[Sofia + 35]

It seems like they are holding back on investments either to ramp up production, which is unlikely, or all production is going towards other projects, such as Model 3 or something else we don't know yet about. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Tesla purchased, apparently by merger, a gigantic roof-tile manufacturing plant in Buffalo (which also got gobs of cash from various governments).. The idea was to make these roofing tiles which would have these photocells embedded in them, so your roof would be transformed into a generator and without the need of separate panels installed on those bolted-on rails. After several billion dollars, I would be curious to learn just how many tiles have been manufactured in the plant and actually sold into the retail market.  I am betting zero.

I have to confess that I never understood that transaction. 

[Rodent + 1,424]

7 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Tesla purchased, apparently by merger, a gigantic roof-tile manufacturing plant in Buffalo (which also got gobs of cash from various governments).. The idea was to make these roofing tiles which would have these photocells embedded in them, so your roof would be transformed into a generator and without the need of separate panels installed on those bolted-on rails. After several billion dollars, I would be curious to learn just how many tiles have been manufactured in the plant and actually sold into the retail market.  I am betting zero.

I have to confess that I never understood that transaction. 

https://electrek.co/2018/04/02/tesla-solar-roof-customer-installation-working/

https://electrek.co/2018/05/26/tesla-solar-roof-tiles-up-close-look/

Production apparently started in January, but the "first look" at the roof tiles actually installed came by Electrek in April, second article is from late May. I don't see much surrounding this since then, and the article offers zero figures as far as my quick scan of it revealed.

This solar thingy is an anchor. Tesla is burning through cash at an alarming rate in its auto business, and then it bought some dead weight in this roof tile thing that is also burning through cash. While investors for now seem to be loyal, even Musk can see the writing on the wall. Tesla is cutting bait because it can no longer afford to burn through cash on both sides of the business. There is NO WAY that the solar thing is making money yet. Sooner or later the music will stop and people will stop throwing cash at Tesla. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

10 minutes ago, Rodent said:

. There is NO WAY that the solar thing is making money yet. 

When you look at the size of that plant in an aerial shot, it knocks your socks off.  That place is so gigantic it could supply all the roof tiles for the entire planet. How they expect to turn that into a money-maker is beyond me. 

[Rodent + 1,424]

7 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

When you look at the size of that plant in an aerial shot, it knocks your socks off.  That place is so gigantic it could supply all the roof tiles for the entire planet. How they expect to turn that into a money-maker is beyond me. 

I think the state of New York actually owns the building, and that Tesla just leases it? I wonder for how much? I just looked up images for the gig2. The building IS huge! 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 minute ago, Rodent said:

I think the state of New York actually owns the building, and that Tesla just leases it? I wonder for how much? I just looked up images for the gig2. The building IS huge! 

After Tesla got their hands on that building they apparently further expanded the footprint.  It was not anywhere near that big originally. The State of NY and the City of Buffalo both kicked in on that deal, they were expecting Musk to single-handedly revive the entire City.  Didn't quite work out that way. 

[HermitMunster + 146]

DOE will come to Musk's rescue if they can't get money on the open market. Tesla is too big to fail. It's too sexy. Tesla isn't even a car company--it is a tech company. And soon, SpaceX will be in control of all of our space exploration. 

[Sebastian Meana + 278]

I feel so unsurprised for this, is simple : solar can't compete, and photovoltaic are not a solution only thermal solar energy can work in specific areas of the world.

Is only now a matter of time until they decide to close their "energy storage" business, which they will have to close since battery based power storage is 50 times more expensive than pumped storage.

Tesla will be likely dead before 2025, the problem of being the good one is that you attract competence, if VW, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes, BMW, and other ones decide to take on tesla they will do it, they have more resources experience, knowledge and money to put on development and research of new products, how many people that buy a Tesla model 3 will think in cancel their order and go for a electric VW?

[NickW + 2,714]

On 6/22/2018 at 7:54 PM, Sebastian Meana said:

I feel so unsurprised for this, is simple : solar can't compete, and photovoltaic are not a solution only thermal solar energy can work in specific areas of the world.

Is only now a matter of time until they decide to close their "energy storage" business, which they will have to close since battery based power storage is 50 times more expensive than pumped storage.

Tesla will be likely dead before 2025, the problem of being the good one is that you attract competence, if VW, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes, BMW, and other ones decide to take on tesla they will do it, they have more resources experience, knowledge and money to put on development and research of new products, how many people that buy a Tesla model 3 will think in cancel their order and go for a electric VW?

It depends who you are competing against. If its against retail prices solar is a good cash generator for those with the money to invest upfront. 

Solar diverters that send surplus to heat hot water are quite cheap now and this removes some of the issues over storage. 

Without any form of subsidy the return on a 3-5 KW system is 8-10% tax free.  

My own view on this is that all subsidies should be removed however the investment in solar should be treated as an investment (not consumption) and subject to tax relief - perhaps at a flat rate so its not another scheme that disproportionately benefits rich people.