paywall

Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.

The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.

This would enable Tesla, which also runs an energy supply business in the US, to provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales as soon as next year. It can take Ofgem up to nine months to assess an application.

The business is expected to be branded Tesla Electric and could focus on supplying electricity to consumers who own Tesla products such as cars or batteries.

However, it would not work for households on dual-fuel contracts because the company is only applying for an electricity licence.

Tesla Energy Ventures, the company’s Manchester-based energy subsidiary, made the application last month, and the move was first reported by the Sunday Telegraph. The application was signed by Andrew Payne, who has worked for Tesla since 2016 and runs the company’s energy business in Europe, with responsibility for a team of 60-plus.

The move comes at a time when Tesla’s electric car sales across Europe have been falling. Sales of Teslas in the UK more than halved last month, according to data from the main industry body. Only 987 new Teslas were registered in the UK in July – down almost 60% on the 2,462 registered in July 2024. This means Tesla’s UK market share shrank to 0.7% in July, from 1.67% a year ago.

For 2025 to date, Tesla sales in the UK were 7% lower. This is a period during which Musk has faced heavy criticism for his relationship with Donald Trump, which has now soured, and his interference in politics in Germany, France and the UK.

Tesla has sold many home storage batteries called Powerwalls that can be charged by solar power or from the grid at off-peak times to UK households. It also sells home chargers for electric cars.

The company effectively revealed its aim to sell electricity to homes two years ago when it posted a job listing looking for a head of operations. It took its first step into the British energy market in 2020 when it was granted a licence to be an electricity generator.

Tesla already has an electricity supplier in Texas, where it launched household supply deals in 2022. It allows Tesla owners to charge their cars cheaply and pays them for selling surplus solar power or electricity stored in its home batteries back to the grid.

Fuck, no.

There is no paywall.

The Guardian is actually the only major newspaper that refuses to charge readers for content.

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They rely on small donors (like me).

ok, tracking cookie-wall then

Tesla anything shouldn't be allowed to operate in the UK (or anywhere in Europe for that matter).

Sure looks like a paywall to me, except you get a choice of a currency you can pay with.

For context, UK domestic energy suppliers don't actually do any generation or distribution - they just retail electricity produced and distributed by others. So they can buy wholesale energy and attempt to compete on price, customer service, or other innovative products (eg Octopus's dynamic pricing).

Normally I'd expect Tesla to do an Uber-style approach of subsiding the prices for the first couple of years to try to capture market share, as well as the more obvious vertical integration with their cars. But in this market, switching suppliers is too easy to make that worthwhile

Ideally, so few people sign up on principle that it is hugely embarrassing for him. They'd have to call it "Not tesla" to stand half a chance.

Unfortunately not everyone can afford principles in this world and I wouldn't blame them for signing up if tesla's strategy is to buy market share but I would hope that if tesla pricing is normal, they get shunned.

Or anywhere on earth

And you don’t even need to do that. Press “Reject all and subscribe” and then go back in your browser.

They'd have to call it "Not tesla"

"Cyber Power" it is then

Or the universe.

All you need to know about his company promises:
"HE FIXED TRAFFIC", from Adam Something on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/p8NiM_p8n5A

I wonder if this is just a necessary legal/regulatory step in order for them to start running Virtual Power Plants in the UK. There was a recent article stating that they recently ran a successful test of a 100,000 node VPP in California. Up until now I’ve only heard of them being 1000-2000 nodes, so that test is a massive improvement.

Now now.....lets not be hasty. If Elon Musk wants to leave earth, I won't attempt to stop him.

I want him dead. Everything he touches becomes shitty.

You'll get cut off if you criticize Elmo, though