Dive Brief:
- SolarCity revealed in regulatory filings this week that it cut staff 20% last year in an effort to hold onto cash and reduce costs as the company faces a slowing market.
- In a Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SolarCity said it had 12,243 employees at the end of last year. Reuters points out that's almost 20% below 2015 numbers, when the company had 15,273 employees.
- The solar company has slowed earnings at Tesla, which purchased the installer last year. According to the parent company, it will focus on profitability rather than growth in 2017.
Dive Insight:
Tesla's earnings last month indicated the company would be looking to change course on its solar strategy, but the employment figures revealed to the SEC show the extent of its campaign and how long it has been in motion. The company shed about 3,000 jobs last year.
Some of those jobs include those shed after SolarCity pulled its Nevada operations in early 2016 after utility regulators gutted the state's retail net metering program. The negative regulatory decision and poor financial reports from slowing demand in the first half of 2016 eventually led to Tesla making an offer to the financially-beleaguered solar company.
Tesla, also looking to create an integrated solar-storage-transportation behemoth, completed the purchase in November. Tesla reported a $121 million net loss in the fourth quarter, with total revenues of $2.28 billion. In a letter to its shareholders, the company said the SolarCity deal added $85 million to its operating expenses, but said solar lease sales climbed 28% over the quarter.
In its shareholder letter, Tesla said that with the acquisition of SolarCity complete, "we plan to reduce customer acquisition costs by cutting advertising spending, selling solar products in Tesla stores, and shifting from leasing to selling solar energy systems."
The company said that during a transition period, it would focus on cash preservation over deployment of new systems. The company deployed 98 MWh of energy storage and 201 MW of solar generation in the final quarter, with the solar business adding $77 million in revenue in the last six weeks of the year.
