Walmart pursues Tesla over rooftop solar lights

August 22, 2019 by Steve Hanley

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Update: This story may not be as simple as initially presented:

Juicy alert.

It would not be Walmart if there was no failure to pay
$ TSLA Impossible for Walmart to review site reports prepared according to a mutually agreed protocol

Walmart referred $ TSLA to their consultant who declined to comment on the reports because Walmart failed to pay for it pic.twitter.com/ovmT0EzV9G

– Vladimir Grinshpun (@VGrinshpun) August 22, 2019

We contacted Tesla to ask for more comments.

Another update (the full linked document is also available here):

Wal Mart owes Tesla a lot of money … https: //t.co/I1Bz1oMsV5

– Lycanthrope (@AskDrStupid) August 22, 2019

In 2010, Walmart was one of the first major companies to participate in the solar energy revolution. It has partnered with SolarCity, the rooftop solar company created by Elon Musk's cousins ​​Lyndon Rive and Peter Rive, to install solar panels on the rooftops of 224 of its stores.

To date, seven of these rooftop installations have caught fire, causing millions of dollars in structural damage and lost sales. Unable to resolve their differences, Walmart now sued Tesla, claiming that the company, which had bought SolarCity in 2016, was guilty of a long list of misconduct ranging from negligence to incompetence through Vélisme on the high seas.

Image courtesy of SEIA / Solar Means Business report

The SolarCity mess

We are used to thinking that Tesla is a well run company with a clear roadmap for the future. Yet, since the SolarCity acquisition, it has repeatedly failed with solar technology, a decision many analysts called "bailout" for a couple of cousins ​​whose company was about to survive. on one's last legs. .

According to a journalist Internal business The lawsuit filed by Walmart claims that Tesla has no explanation for why the roofing systems caught fire, adding that Tesla did not have any precise schematic of the solar panels, no procedure in place, and no employees trained in how to inspect or repair them. In fact, his own employees had to show Tesla employees the problems of cracking and temperature related to solar panels.

Tesla said its inspections revealed 157 areas requiring repairs or replacement in the 224 stores. Walmart says the total number of defects is much higher. "According to the information received, the actual conditions are worse than those documented by Tesla, due to its deficient and incompetent inspections, including the fact that Tesla relies on untrained, unskilled and unsupervised personnel to install and maintain the systems, "said Walmart. filing in court.

according to CNBC Walmart alleges in its complaint that Tesla bought SolarCity to "bail out the threshing company" and mentioned SolarCity 46 times throughout the trial. The complaint further alleges that SolarCity has created a tolerant culture due to its desperate need to keep money in the door and that Tesla has not solved this problem.

Finally, he also accuses Tesla of filing reports that he repaired the Walmart roofs when he was not. As part of the recovery sought, Walmart is seeking to terminate its solar roof contract with Tesla and compel it to remove all rooftop systems from its stores.

Have investors been informed?

The lawsuit raises a lot of questions "he said, they said" that will be completely debated in court. But the biggest threat to society is that Tesla may or may not have told its investors – shareholders and bondholders – about its financial exposure resulting from Walmart's situation. Internal business poses a number of compelling questions:

• Did Tesla ever disclose the loss of Walmart's business to its shareholders?
• Did Tesla ever disclose the loss of Walmart's business to SolarCity bondholders?
• Is Tesla concerned about the possible class action lawsuits related to SolarCity roofs?
• Does Tesla have insurance that would cover such a lawsuit?
• Have any other clients (owners or businesses) experienced such fires?

CleanTechnica is often accused of being a Tesla fanboy site. It is true that we write many laudable articles to society and its director general. However, it is possible that our hero has clay feet. He has a penchant for bleak promises and insufficient results, to go fast even when the yellow warning lights blink.

Confusion abounds

Many outside observers suggested that Elon Musk intimidate the Tesla and SolarCity board of directors to approve a merger without completing the due diligence as required. Since the merger, Tesla has changed its solar business model several times, starting with the dismantling of the door-to-door sales model followed by SolarCity, and announcing a major link with Home Depot that was soon canceled. the Tesla solar roof almost two years ago.

Meanwhile, Gigafactory 2, the Tesla solar plant in Buffalo, New York, appears to be losing ground and is not attracting the attention or expected revolutionary power. Even shipments of the company's Powerwall residential residential battery are well behind schedule. But for the company's success in utility-scale battery storage, the SolarCity Tesla puzzle piece seems to be malfunctioning and is a huge success for Musk's unbeatability.

It is not difficult to say that Tesla could have pursued its energy storage ambitions without taking on the debts of SolarCity. The latest debacle with Walmart could be a serious black eye for the company, a situation that could cause a loss of confidence in Tesla and his leadership at a critical time for the company.

Keywords: SolarCity, Tesla, Tesla Energy, Tesla Prosecution, Tesla Solar, Walmart