Dive Brief:
- Tesla’s energy generation and storage division deployed 9.4 GWh of energy storage products in Q2 2024, more than doubling its previous record, set in the prior quarter, the company said July 2.
- Tesla Energy deployed 4.1 GWh of energy storage in Q1 2024, bringing its total storage deliveries to 13.5 GWh in the first half of 2024. The company delivered 14.7 GWh of storage in all of 2023, according to its financial reports.
- “Our non-automotive business is becoming an increasingly profitable part of Tesla,” the company said in its Q1 2024 earnings report. “As Megapack continues to ramp and as our fleet continues to grow, we are expecting consistent profit growth of our non-automotive business.”
Dive Insight:
The United States added nearly 26 GWh of energy storage in 2023, according to a report released by Wood Mackenzie earlier this year. Though 90% of total U.S. storage deployments were utility-scale and 77% of those bulk installations occurred in California and Texas, the 2023 figures represent a 90% increase over 2022, Wood Mackenzie said.
Tesla Energy’s storage deployments jumped 157% year-over-year and 132% quarter-over-quarter.
The Q2 2024 figures suggest Tesla Energy’s Lathrop, California, Megapack factory is nearing full production capacity, Tesla commentator Sawyer Merritt tweeted July 2. The Lathrop facility has a 40-GWh annual production capacity.
“We have our second [assembly] line allowing us to increase our exit rate from 20 GWh per year … at the start of this year to 40 GWh per year by the end of the year,” Tesla Senior Director of Megapack Mike Snyder said during the company’s Q1 update.
Larger Tesla Megapack customers typically order batteries 12 to 24 months in advance of delivery, allowing Tesla to plan production several quarters in advance, Snyder said.
Tesla expects to begin production in Q1 2025 at a second 40-GWh Megapack factory it’s building in Shanghai, China, Tesla Senior Vice President of Automotive Tom Zhu told Teslarati in May. The Shanghai factory will be the company’s first dedicated energy storage facility outside the United States, Teslarati reported.
Megapack is designed for utilities and large commercial users, with each unit capable of storing 3.9 MWh, Tesla says.
Tesla will release detailed second-quarter financial results on July 23, the company said July 2. In Q1 2024, Tesla Energy booked a 7% year-over-year increase in revenue and a 140% year-over-year jump in gross profit thanks to higher Megapack deployments, “partially offset by a decrease in solar deployments,” the company said in its Q1 update.
Tesla expects its energy storage deployment and revenue growth rates to outpace those of its automotive business in 2024, the company said last quarter.
“Our non-automotive business is becoming an increasingly profitable part of Tesla,” Tesla said. “As Megapack continues to ramp and as our fleet continues to grow, we are expecting consistent profit growth of our non-automotive business.”
Still, energy storage and generation is a small part of Tesla’s overall business. The division booked revenues of $1.64 billion in Q1 2024, compared with automotive revenues of $17.38 billion.
