Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk should be over the moon right now: The reveal of the Tesla Model 3 (TSLA) at the end of March was a veritable success, while another company he’s involved in, SolarCity (SCTY), is also doing pretty well for itself.
As of March 22, the solar energy company’s customers officially produce enough electricity in a day to power Tesla’s fleet, according to a Thursday SolarCity blogpost.
That works out to eight million kilowatt-hours of electricity a day for the 107,000 or so Tesla Model S cars sold through the end of 2015. SolarCity noted that eight million kilowatt-hours is in fact enough to power 114,000 Tesla vehicles. SolarCity has about 230,000 customers.
“That’s a lot of joy rides. According to the EPA, a fully charged Tesla Model S has a range of about 234 miles — roughly the driving distance from Washington DC to New York,” SolarCity, which Musk co-founded, wrote.
Naturally, that led customers to wonder whether they could put the two together:
@elonmusk Is it possible to charge your Tesla at home using your solar panels?
— carrie luckas (@carrieluckas) April 8, 2016
@elonmusk any reason not to give Teslas aesthetically-pleasing, embedded solar panels? Wouldn't it offer some level of charging? #innovation
— André Lessa (@lessaworld) April 8, 2016
Whether SolarCity will produce enough electricity to power all of Tesla’s active cars after the 325,000 Model 3 orders are delivered remains to be seen.
SolarCity also announced Thursday that it had closed the second financing of its renewable energy tax equity investment program with the Bank of America and another investor. The deal will help finance $188 million in residential solar projects, covering the capital cost of solar equipment and installations. That would allow the company to reach a larger customer base with lower prices.
Shares of SolarCity popped 5.22% Friday, though shares are down 44% year to date. That said, the company has more than doubled its IPO closing price.
