Elon Musk and Tesla Motors have made a $2.8 billion stock-to-stock offer to acquire SolarCity, a company founded by Musk’s cousins.
Musk, who currently serves as chairman for SolarCity, has witnessed it grow into one of the largest solar energy companies in the United States.
The attempt to purchase SolarCity makes sense for Tesla as the acquisition would be a logical next step in the company’s vision of a purely solar-electric transportation future.
SolarCity’s photovoltaic solutions could easily be incorporated into Tesla’s vehicles and would be perfect for charging the company’s Powerwall batteries.
Here’s an excerpt from a post on Tesla’s blog explaining the idea behind the offer:
The SolarCity team has built its company into the clear solar industry leader in the residential, commercial and industrial markets, with significant scale and growing customer penetration. They have made it easy for customers to switch to clean energy while still providing the best customer experience. We’ve seen this all firsthand through our partnership with SolarCity on a variety of use cases, including those where SolarCity uses Tesla battery packs as part of its solar projects.
Musk added on a recent call that “It’s a thing that matters 10 times more than the product itself,” he said. “The world doesn’t lack for automotive companies. The world lacks for sustainable energy companies.”
