Tesla Energy, the automaker’s energy division, had a record quarter, but the market doesn’t seem to care much due to how small it is in relation to its automotive business.
CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla Energy is becoming a distributed global utility, and it could even outgrow its automotive business.
It’s hard to imagine that happening right now since it currently brings in less than a 10th of Tesla’s auto business revenue, but it is growing.
Yesterday, Tesla released its Q2 2021 financial results, and Tesla Energy brought in $801 million in revenue.
It represents a 62% quarter-over-quarter increase and a 116% year-over-year increase.
The growth is attributed to Tesla’s energy storage deployment since energy generation (solar) is actually slightly down quarter-over-quarter:
Tesla attributed the energy storage growth to the commissioning to several large Megapack projects:
“Energy storage deployments more than tripled YoY in Q2, driven mainly by recognition of several Megapack projects. Energy storage deployments can vary meaningfully quarter to quarter depending on the timing of specific project milestones. Powerwall remained exceptionally popular as deployments nearly doubled YoY. Energy storage production continues to be held back by supply chain challenges as our backlog remains long.”
During a conference call following the release of the results, Musk said that Megapack is sold out until the end of next year.
However, as Tesla mentioned, the battery system is production constrained due to supply issues, including battery cell supply and microchips.
Powerwall is in a similar situation.
We recently reported that Musk disclosed that Tesla has about 80,000 Powerwall orders, but it can deliver more than 30,000 to 35,000 this quarter.
On the solar front, Tesla saw significant growth year-over-year:
“Solar deployments reached 85 MW in Q2, more than tripling YoY. Additionally, cash/loan solar deployments more than quadrupled YoY. Solar Roof deployments grew substantially both YoY as well as sequentially in Q2. Thus far, our solar + storage product remains very popular, and we continue to improve efficiency of our install crews.”
We recently reported on several moves that Tesla is doing to help accelerate its solar business.
For example, it now sells solar panels, inverters, and Powerwalls as a whole “Tesla Energy ecosystem” through third-party solar installers.
Tesla is also now partnering with new home builders to deploy its solar power system directly in new communities being built.
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