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Tesla to end Home Depot partnership as it closes 12 solar facilities: report

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Tesla is closing around a dozen of its solar facilities across nine states in the United States. The closures of the solar sites are reportedly part of the company’s ongoing restructuring, which is set to lay off 9% of Tesla’s workforce.

According to Reuters, the information comes from three internal company documents and statements from seven present and former Tesla employees. The documents accessed by the publication state that the latest cuts to the division come from a part of the company that was once SolarCity. Tesla’s partnership with Home Depot to push sales of its solar solutions and Powerwall 2 home batteries is set to be discontinued as well. According to Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes, its partnership with Tesla would last through the end of 2018, after which it would continue a partnership with competitor Sunrun in a number of its stores. 

An internal company list reviewed by Reuters added that after the closures of the solar facilities, about 60 solar installation sites would remain open. The facilities that will be closed are reportedly located in California, Texas, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Arizona. Solar customer service staff at call centers in Utah and Nevada have also been reportedly laid off by the company.

A Tesla Powerwall 2 displayed in a Home Depot outlet. [Credit: Xixu/Twitter]

With the Home Depot partnership terminated, Tesla will now push its solar solutions through its own stores. Personnel from the facilities that are set to be closed are being transferred to other sites as well. In a statement to Reuters, Tesla noted that the company still expects to grow its solar and battery business over time.

“We continue to expect that Tesla’s solar and battery business will be the same size as automotive over the long term. Tesla stores have some of the highest foot traffic of any retail space in the country,” the company said.

While stopping its partnership with Home Depot might come off as alarming, GTM Research analyst Austin Perea noted that the deal might have been discontinued as a means to reduce unnecessary expenses. While the Home Depot partnership accounted for a significant number of solar and energy sales for Tesla, third-party retail partnerships are among the most expensive means of generating sales in the solar industry. According to Perea, the cost of winning a customer through Home Depot could cost up to $7,000 per system, roughly 45% more compared to the national average of $4,000 per installation.

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Tesla’s energy business is steadily growing, however. Last month, CTO JB Straubel noted in a statement to Fast Company that Tesla had installed 1 GWh worth of energy storage to date, an impressive figure that was reiterated by Elon Musk during the company’s 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting. During the investors’ event, Musk noted that Tesla would be doing another 1 GWh project less than a year from now, with more growth set to happen within the next few years. As could be seen in Tesla’s 10-Q form for Q1 2018, the company’s energy and storage revenue increased 92% in the three months ended March 31, 2008 year-on-year, primarily due to the earnings of the 129 MWh Powerpack farm in South Australia, which generated $72.5 million on its own.

Tesla continues to deploy its energy solutions to several projects across the globe. Currently, Tesla is involved in roughly 11,000 projects in Puerto Rico, where it continues to help communities damaged by Hurricane Maria get back on their feet. Tesla is also starting on the beginnings of a virtual power plant in South Australia involving 50,000 residential homes fitted with Powerwall 2 home batteries and residential solar. 

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Energy

Tesla Energy is the world’s top global battery storage system provider again

Tesla Energy captured 15% of the battery storage segment’s global market share in 2024.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Energy held its top position in the global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator market for the second consecutive year, capturing 15% of global market share in 2024, as per Wood Mackenzie’s latest rankings.

Tesla Energy’s lead, however, is shrinking, as Chinese competitors like Sungrow are steadily increasing their global footprint, particularly in European markets.

Tesla Energy dominates in North America, but its lead is narrowing globally

Tesla Energy retained its leadership in the North American market with a commanding 39% share in 2024. Sungrow, though still ranked second in the region, saw its share drop from 17% to 10%. Powin took third place, even if the company itself filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, as noted in a Solar Power World report. 

On the global stage, Tesla Energy’s lead over Sungrow shrank from four points in 2023 to just one in 2024, indicating intensifying competition. Chinese firm CRRC came in third worldwide with an 8% share.

Wood Mackenzie ranked vendors based on MWh shipments with recognized revenue in 2024. According to analyst Kevin Shang, “Competition among established BESS integrators remains incredibly intense. Seven of the top 10 vendors last year struggled to expand their market share, remaining either unchanged or declining.”

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Chinese integrators surge in Europe, falter in U.S.

China’s influence on the BESS market continues to grow, with seven of the global top 10 BESS integrators now headquartered in the country. Chinese companies saw a 67% year-over-year increase in European market share, and four of the top 10 BESS vendors in Europe are now based in China. In contrast, Chinese companies’ market share in North America dropped more than 30%, from 23% to 16% amid Tesla Energy’s momentum and the Trump administration’s policies.

Wood Mackenzie noted that success in the global BESS space will hinge on companies’ ability to adapt to divergent regulations and geopolitical headwinds. “The global BESS integrator landscape is becoming increasingly complex, with regional trade policies and geopolitical tensions reshaping competitive dynamics,” Shang noted, pointing to Tesla’s maintained lead and the rapid ascent of Chinese rivals as signs of a shifting industry balance.

“While Tesla maintains its global leadership, the rapid rise of Chinese integrators in Europe and their dominance in emerging markets like the Middle East signals a fundamental shift in the industry. Success will increasingly depend on companies’ ability to navigate diverse regulatory environments, adapt to local market requirements, and maintain competitive cost structures across multiple regions,” the analyst added.

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Energy

Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure

Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.

Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.

Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage

It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.

LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.

The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.

For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.

During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”

It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.

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Energy

Tesla Shanghai Megafactory produces 1,000th Megapack for export to Europe

The Shanghai Megafactory was able to hit this milestone less than six months after it started producing the Megapack. 

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Credit: Tesla Asia/X

Tesla Energy has announced a fresh milestone for its newest Megapack factory. As per the electric vehicle maker, the Shanghai Megafactory has successfully produced its 1,000th Megapack battery. 

The facility was able to hit this milestone less than six months after it started producing the grid-scale battery system. 

New Tesla Megapack Milestone

As per Tesla Asia in a post on its official accounts on social media platform X, the 1,000th Megapack unit that was produced at the Shanghai Megafactory would be exported to Europe. As noted in a CNEV Post report, Tesla’s energy products are currently deployed in over 65 countries and regions globally. This allows Tesla Energy to compete in energy markets that are both emerging and mature.

To commemorate the 1,000th Megapack produced at the Shanghai Megafactory, the Tesla China team posted with the grid-scale battery with celebratory balloons that spelled “Megapack 1000.” The milestone was celebrated by Tesla enthusiasts on social media, especially since the Shanghai Megafactory only started its operations earlier this year.

Quick Megafactory Ramp

The Shanghai Megafactory, similar to Tesla’s other key facilities in China, was constructed quickly. The facility started its construction on May 23, 2024, and it was hailed as Tesla’s first entry storage project outside the United States. Less than a year later, on February 11, 2025, the Shanghai Megafactory officially started producing Megapack batteries. And by March 21, 2025, Tesla China noted that it had shipped the first batch of Megapack batteries from the Shanghai plant to foreign markets.

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While the Shanghai Megafactory is still not at the same level of output as Tesla’s Lathrop Megafactory, which produces about 10,000 Megapacks per year, its ramp seems to be quite steady and quick. It would then not be surprising if Tesla China announces the Shanghai Megafactory’s 2,000th Megapack milestone in the coming months.

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