On Thursday afternoon, the shareholders of Tesla and Solar City voted to merge the electric-car manufacturer and solar-power company into one corporation, centralizing Elon Musk’s efforts to create an integrated network of renewable energy homes and electric cars.
“I think your faith will be rewarded, it’s really going to be some amazing stuff that comes out,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said right after the formal section of the meeting, which only lasted about four minutes.
The biggest question, of course, is why such a merger makes sense for the company. As Elon has explained many times over the past few months, the end goal is to streamline the process of fully adapting the home infrastructure and transport network of everyday consumers into a clean, energy-friendly future.
“We’re trying to make an integrated product, an integrated solar roof with a power wall and a car,” Musk said during Q&A portion of the special shareholder’s meeting. “You just go into a Tesla store and say yes, and it all works and it’s seamless, and you love it.”
Will we love it? WILL WE? Yeah, ok, probably.
Musk said the planned solar roof would actually cost the same, or even less, than a traditional roof to install, meaning that there was pretty much no reason for new home builders to invest in anything else, considering the savings on everyday energy the solar roof would bring.
“Honestly, in looking at this, it’s like I don’t know why anyone’s not doing it — it’s not that crazy hard, so beats me,” Musk said.
The merger has been in the works for months, and hasn’t always gone smoothly. But it looks like Musk was able to convince the shareholders that it was in everyone’s best interests, as General Counsel Todd A. Maron reported that the vote passed with around 85 percent support of unaffiliated shareholders.
“I’m pleased to say that based on the proxies that we’ve previously received, our shareholders have overwhelmingly approved this proposal,” Maron said at the meeting. “Yes. There will be a final report given by the inspector of elections. But based on the proxies we’ve received is so far, Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity received the approval of more than 85% of the unaffiliated votes cast at the meeting.”
And of course, after leaving the stage, Musk hit Twitter to express his thanks.
Musk, who owns a little over 20 percent of Tesla’s stock, did not personally vote in the merger, in order to make a statement that he valued the views of his other shareholders.
