Clean energy and automotive company, Tesla, has been issued a licence to supply electricity to households and businesses across Great Britain. The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) granted Tesla the electricity supply licence to enable it provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales.
Tesla, owned by billionaire businessman, Elon Musk, has consistently expressed ambition in expanding its energy stronghold. The companyvis expected to replicate its supply business in Texas, where it is branded as Tesla Electric and offers to help customers power “your home, electric vehicle and community with low-cost sustainable electricity.”
However, Tesla’s electricity licence means it cannot offer a dual fuel contract to households, but to supply a customer’s electricity if they had a separate tariff agreement for their gas supply. In Texas the company already operates a “virtual power plant” that allows Tesla owners to charge their cars cheaply and then pays them for selling electricity stored in its Powerwall home batteries back to the grid.
In Britain the “virtual power plant” for Powerwall owners is offered through Octopus Energy, another household energy supplier. Tesla does not report how many Powerwalls it has sold in Britain but it has sold more than 250,000 electric vehicles.
The carmaker’s sales have slumped in the UK and much of mainland Europe in the past year amid tougher competition in the electric car market and controversy around Musk’s politics. Tesla’s UK sales fell 37 percent from 3,852 to 2,422 in February compared with the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
It estimated that Tesla’s market share in the UK stands at 1.34 percent in the year to date, below its Chinese rival BYD at 2.64 percent and BMW at 5.43 percent. Sales were hurt in part by a buyer backlash against Musk’s support for Donald Trump and a period working in the president’s administration. In his role at the “department of government efficiency” or Doge, the billionaire led sweeping job cuts, but he quit in May after falling out with Trump over the “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill.
Musk also alienated customers through other political interventions, including appearing to give a Nazi salute at Trump’s victory rally, showing support for Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, and accusing Keir Starmer and other senior UK politicians of covering up the scandal about grooming gangs.
