Elon Musk's Tesla wants a slice of UK energy market and could supply homes in months

 Elon Musk is plotting to launch into the British energy market and supply households in the coming months.

The tycoon’s firm Tesla has sought approval for a licence from watchdog Ofgem in order to take on energy supply giants like British Gas owner Centrica and Octopus Energy. And the company hopes to start supplying power to homes and businesses in England, Scotland and Wales as soon as next year.

The electric car maker also has a solar energy and battery storage business. Electric vehicle expert Jordan Marsden wrote on X: “Look out Octopus, Elon is coming for you. Given the cost of the Tesla Supercharger networks, could we be about to see cheaper energy prices?”

He added: “Tesla already runs an energy supply business in Texas, allowing customers to buy cheaper off-peak electricity and sell surplus solar/battery power back to the grid.

“Tesla’s been hinting at this move for two years, but with the application now formally in, it could mark a big shake-up for UK energy supply, and a new way for Tesla to deepen its ecosystem.”

Tesla Energy Ventures applied for the licence last month, according to a new filing published by Ofgem.

The application was signed by Andrew Payne, director of the group’s energy business in Europe. Tesla has been involved in the UK energy market since 2020 when it was granted a licence to be an electricity generator.

It has flogged more than a quarter of a million electric vehicles and tens of thousands of home storage batteries in Britain.

In the US, the group has been a power supplier in Texas for the past three years. It comes amid waning demand for Mr Musk’s electric motors across Europe in recent months.

Industry figures showed an almost 60% plunge in the number of new Tesla registrations in the UK in July, compared with a year earlier.

Data showed 987 new vehicles were registered compared with 2,462 in the same month a year earlier. Mr Musk, 54, was also slammed for working as an adviser to US president Donald Trump before the two had a bitter falling out on social media.

This development comes after Musk has reportedly discussed “cooperation in deep space” with Russia’s state space agency Roscosmos.

The agency’s CEO Dmitry Bakanov admitted in an interview with Russian publication RBK he had “a couple of discussions” on the topic of deep space with the eccentric US billionaire.

Bakanov referred to Musk as a person who has done a lot of the development for space exploration.