SolarCity, Honda Establish $65 Million Project Investment Fund

Christopher Martin and Justin Doom, Bloomberg
February 20, 2013 | 2 Comments

SolarCity Corp., the solar-power provider led by billionaire Elon Musk, is partnering with Honda Motor Co. to finance $65 million worth of rooftop projects for car buyers and dealers.

Japan’s third-largest automaker will begin offering Honda or Acura buyers living in SolarCity’s 14-state coverage area, including California and New Jersey, a $400 discount toward a residential system, Steven Center, a vice president at American Honda Motor Co., said in an interview today. The partnership also will deploy systems on as many as 20 dealerships.

“We’re trying to create the liquidity that will build the solar market,” Center said. “We’ll probably run the course of the program this year.” As many as 3,000 customers will qualify for the discount, he said.

The agreement with Honda allows SolarCity, based in San Mateo, California, to offer discounts to their customers, Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Rive said.

“We can be a lot more aggressive with the price,” Rive said in an interview.

SolarCity said last month that installations of rooftop solar systems will climb to 250 megawatts this year, up from 156 megawatts in 2012.

This isn’t the first time an automaker has partnered with a solar producer. In 2011, Ford Motor Co. and SunPower Corp., the second-largest U.S. solar manufacturer, combined to offer solar systems to Focus Electric drivers.

Lead image: Gary Blakely via Shutterstock

2 Comments

Ron Winton
February 21, 2013

Solar leasing or solar fleecing ? You decide. The solar leasing companies want your roof so that they can take your 30% federal tax credit worth thousands of dollars. They will also take any and all other financial incentives such as cash rebates and REC credits. In exchange you'll only get a 10 to 15% reduction in your electric bill after you factor in the lease payments and you'll be stuck with 20 years' worth of lease payments on forever ageing solar equipment that you can't sell because it won't belong to you. In fact after making 20 years' worth of lease payments, if you want to keep the system, you'll have to buy it from the leasing company at fair market value. And good luck ever selling your home with a lease attached to it. What home buyer will want to assume your lease payment on used equipment when they can buy a brand new, state of the art system for as little as 1/3 the cost of your lease payments. Today you can buy a complete, name brand, grid tie solar system for only $1.66 a watt. And that's before any incentives. Instead of a solar lease why not get an FHA $0 down solar loan so you can keep the 30% federal tax credit and all the other financial incentives for a much better return on your investment. Oh, and that discount that the leasing company is offering you, who do you think is paying for that in the end? Right, how generous of you.

ANONYMOUS
February 21, 2013

Honda has decided to hang its dealers out to dry with this partnership. As I have said concerning Solyndra and Nanosolar, SolarCity is toxic and will be a painful lesson for most participants. Referrals like this will turn long time Honda buyers into vocal opponents of the company as soon as they try to sell their homes under the terms of SolarCity's onerous lease requirements. Yes a real estate lawyer should be consulted to review a roof lease but they are expensive and aren't likely to be consulted in most cases (similar to how home buyers waived home inspections during the boom--BAD move).