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Comment by thinkling | Hacker News Reader

What you said is correct but immediately raises the question "what's the value of that integration?" Obviously GM and Shell have been successful and profitable without being integrated, and it's not clear that merging would yield them advantages. Why do these advantages exist in the electric energy arena?

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This is just my opinion, but I think long term Tesla will lose out on solar panels to cheaper more focused competition.

But they seem to be leading the way in battery production and self-driving automobiles. If they can hold on to market lead in those two areas then they should still be able to way outpace Ford or other car manufacturers. Big IF though in terms of self-driving technology with all the other big money players racing for that grail. Energy storage and battery production they seem to be in a class of their own without much competition.

Can't predict numbers but some obvious integration points are... a) on the hardware side a solar panel customer could also buy the power wall (natural extension) and car, which can yield very high LTV per consumer; b) on the services side a fully autonomous ride sharing means low operating cost; c) if Solar City continues to lease out the panels then Tesla could become the biggest solar powered grid network on the planet.

I just don't see a) as happening much. If there are cheaper solar panel or electric cars available I don't see the point in a consumer not going with the competition. Unless Tesla intentionally makes it hard to integrate competitors solar panels into their power walls/cars, which would likely land them in some anti-competitive/monopoly troubles in a number of jurisdictions.

Possible.. interesting thing to note is that home owners are more inclined to lease panels than buy them (so retail cost doesn't matter much it appears). SolarCity really took off after it started offering the 0 down lease. If that trend continues, Tesla could potentially offer a blanket $x/month for energy production and $y/month for consumption (cars) and lock people in. We know panel cost and batter cost will go down over time, so the game is likely in selling experiences not entities..

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