Elon Musk gets green light to merge Tesla and SolarCity
Shareholders approved Elon Musk’s plan to merge Tesla Motors and SolarCity as the billionaire outlined plans for a new line of solar roofing tiles.
The $2.1 billion, all-stock deal — OK’d Thursday by more than 85 percent of Tesla shareholders, despite SolarCity’s mounting losses — will create a one-stop shop for electric cars, solar roofs and home batteries.
“Your faith will be rewarded,” billionaire Musk told SolarCity shareholders after the vote.
SolarCity has been racking up losses selling conventional solar panels, but the company is poised for a turnaround when it releases a new line of solar-cell roofing tiles next summer, according to Musk.
“Assuming it pans out, we’re able to do a solar roof for less than a normal roof,” including labor costs, Musk told SolarCity shareholders.
The shingle-shaped glass panels weigh “a third or quarter or fifth as much as ceramic or concrete tile,” Musk said, adding that with traditional roof tiles, “most of the cost is transport. Breakage of ceramic and concrete is very high.”
As such, “subsidies don’t really matter,” Musk added, responding to concerns that federal incentives for solar power, which can account for as much as 30 percent of the price, may be washed out in a Trump administration.
The merger will close “in the coming days,” Tesla said, as its shares rose slightly in after-hours trades from their closing price of $188.66.