Tesla gets a license to supply UK homes with electricity

Years after becoming a Virtual Power Plant company that uses electricity stored in customers Electric Vehicles to provide Grid Scale Storage power to California’s electricity grid when they need it Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.

The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.

This would enable Tesla, which also runs an energy supply business in the US, to provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales as soon as next year. It can take Ofgem up to nine months to assess an application.

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The business is expected to be branded Tesla Electric and could focus on supplying electricity to consumers who own Tesla products such as cars or batteries. However, it would not work for households on dual-fuel contracts because the company is only applying for an electricity licence.

Tesla Energy Ventures, the company’s Manchester-based energy subsidiary, made the application last month, and the move was first reported by the Sunday Telegraph. The application was signed by Andrew Payne, who has worked for Tesla since 2016 and runs the company’s energy business in Europe, with responsibility for a team of 60-plus.

The move comes at a time when Tesla’s electric car sales across Europe have been falling. Sales of Teslas in the UK more than halved last month, according to data from the main industry body. Only 987 new Teslas were registered in the UK in July – down almost 60% on the 2,462 registered in July 2024. This means Tesla’s UK market share shrank to 0.7% in July, from 1.67% a year ago.

For 2025 to date, Tesla sales in the UK were 7% lower. This is a period during which Musk has faced heavy criticism for his relationship with Donald Trump, which has now soured, and his interference in politics in Germany, France and the UK.

Tesla has sold many home storage batteries called Powerwalls that can be charged by solar power or from the grid at off-peak times to UK households. It also sells home chargers for electric cars.

The company effectively revealed its aim to sell electricity to homes two years ago when it posted a job listing looking for a head of operations. It took its first step into the British energy market in 2020 when it was granted a licence to be an electricity generator.

Tesla already has an electricity supplier in Texas, where it launched household supply deals in 2022. It allows Tesla owners to charge their cars cheaply and pays them for selling surplus solar power or electricity stored in its home batteries back to the grid.