Tesla bids to enter British energy market

Elon Musk’s Tesla could soon enter the British energy market, taking on the likes of British Gas, Octopus, and E.ON. The US electric car giant has applied to Ofgem, the British energy regulator, for a licence to supply electricity, according to a notice published on the Ofgem website.

If successful, it would mean that Tesla could provide electricity to households and businesses across England, Scotland and Wales within the next year. The application was made last month, signed off by Andrew Payne, who runs Tesla’s European energy operation. The regulator can take up to nine months to process applications.

The new venture, expected to be called Tesla Electric, marks a significant expansion of Tesla's ambitions in the UK. In the US, Tesla currently runs a power supply business in Texas that allows owners of its electric vehicles to charge their cars cheaply and pays them for channelling surplus electricity back to the grid.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, which first reported the news, in the UK, Tesla Electric is expected to integrate closely with Musk’s electric cars and batteries, with a pledge to save on household bills. Tesla already has significant brand recognition in the UK, where it has sold more than a quarter of a million EVs and thousands of home storage batteries.

But Tesla’s electric car sales have been falling across Europe, with sales of Teslas in the UK more than halving in July this year.