Tesla’s Record Energy-Storage Quarter Offers Only So Much Solace

(Bloomberg) -- In what was a total letdown of a quarter for car sales, Tesla Inc. did offer one glimmer of positivity: its energy-storage business has never been better.

For the first time, Tesla included an update on how some of its lesser-known products are holding up in its quarterly breakdown of vehicle production and deliveries. The company deployed 4,053 megawatt hours’ worth of energy-storage batteries in the first three months of the year, almost 2% more than its previous record.

The challenge for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has been converting deployments of Powerwall batteries for homes and Megapacks for commercial customers into more meaningful revenue. Year after year, the company has brought in more sales from its “services and other revenue” segment than from energy generation and storage.

Tesla’s energy-storage deployments reached 14.7 gigawatt hours at the end of last year. The Austin-based company will provide further updates when it reports quarterly earnings on April 23.

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