• Tesla reported blowout profits this week, but its main growth driver wasn’t cars or robots.
• Its energy business has grown more than 50% year over year, bringing Tesla more than $7 billion in revenue so far in 2024.
• Elon Musk said during Tesla’s earnings conference call that the energy unit is “growing like wildfire.”

Tesla has a secret weapon, and it ain’t Elon Musk’s robo-taxi or the Bot Optimus.

The company announced skyrocketing profits on the strength of its automobile sales Wednesday — but its biggest area of ​​growth has been Tesla’s thriving business, which sells batteries and solar panels, not electric cars.

Revenue from Tesla’s energy production and storage business totaled nearly $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2024, up 52% ​​from the same period in 2024. ‘last year.

That’s a sizable jump from Tesla’s auto sales revenue, which increased by 2% over the same period.

The energy sector’s revenue so far this year exceeds $7 billion, meaning it now accounts for nearly 10% of Tesla’s total revenue.

The segment mainly includes solar panel sales of Tesla and its Megapack And Wall of Power battery storage systems.

It generally attracts less attention than flashy but less lucrative projects like Tesla’s robotaxi and Optimus humanoid robots. Yet it quickly became a vitally important revenue source for the automaker.

The growth of Tesla’s energy business was highlighted by Musk during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday, with the Tesla CEO describing it as a “gigantic opportunity” for the automaker.

“The energy storage sector is growing like wildfire, with strong demand for Megapack and Powerwall,” Musk said.

The billionaire said Tesla’s Megapack factory in Lathrop, California, reached a milestone of producing 200 units per week.. Tesla too told investors that the company had installed a record number of Powerwall systems for the second consecutive quarter.

Tesla is also build a Megapack factory in Shanghai, mass production of which is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025.

Megapack is a commercial battery system used by network providers to store energy and prevent power outages. This is particularly important as more suppliers shift to renewable energy sources that may be more intermittent than fossil fuels.

Tesla says a Megapack can store more than 3.9 MWh of energyenough to power an average of 3,600 homes for an hour. The company sells them for about $5 million each.

The Powerwall, on the other hand, is a home battery that allows customers to store energy generated by solar panels and use it to power their home. It costs around $16,000 before the incentives, and Tesla is offering it in a package with the company’s solar panels and “solar roof” product.