Tesla solar & storage contribute little now, but Musk sees bright future

Elon Musk presenting one of the solar roof tiles. Image taken from Tesla video (www.tesla.com/solar).

Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) solar and storage installations in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020 did not change much from a year earlier, but Elon Musk made it clear that he sees a very bright future for the business.

The famous CEO told investors that Tesla Energy can grow to “roughly the same size as automotive”. In Q2, the energy business’ contribution to Tesla’s revenues was 6%.

Unaudited results in USD million	Q2 2020	Q/Q change	Y/Y change
Total revenue	6,036	+1%	-5%
- of which automotive	5,179	+1%	-4%
- of which energy generation and storage	370	+26%	0%
Adj. EBITDA	1,209	+27%	+111%
Net profit to common stockholders	104	+550%	N/A (loss of 408 million a year ago)
Non-GAAP net profit to common stockholders	451	+99%	N/A (loss of 198 million a year ago)

The company installed 27 MW of solar capacity and 419 MWh of storage in the reporting period. Storage deployments jumped by 61% quarter-on-quarter and the commercial-scale integrated storage system Megapack generated its first profit. Year-on-year, storage deployments inched up by 1%.

Solar deployments dropped by 23% quarter-on-quarter and by 7% year-on-year. Tesla said Solar Roof installations have more or less trebled from the first quarter, but it did not provide specific figures. Back in April, the company announced a key milestone for the solar roofing product -- Gigafactory New York had exceeded 4 MW of Solar Roof production in a single week.

“At USD 1.49 per watt, the average Tesla solar system is now one-third less expensive than the industry,” the Q2 report says. A move to standard sizes and automation in customer acquisition have helped Tesla to lower its solar prices.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.86)

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