Tesla Proposed to Buy SolarCity; Faraday Future Joined Self-Driving Road Test Club; China Manufactured 1.76 Billion Lithium-ion Batteries in First 4 Months
Tesla Proposed to Buy SolarCity
According to Wall Street Journal, Tesla made an acquisition offer to SolarCity on Tuesday. The deal values SolarCity at as much as $2.8 billion, which is with a premium of more than 20% over its current stock price.
The deal, if going through, will allow Tesla to integrate its electric car and battery business with SolarCity’s solar panel business.
Tesla’s market value is about $32.7 billion, which is more than 15 times the size of SolarCity ($2.1 billion).
Elon Musk serves as both companies’ chairman and largest shareholder. He recused himself during the decision making process. The deal needs approval of shareholders.
Faraday Future Joined Self-Driving Road Test Club
According to Reuters, California DMV approved Faraday Future to test its self-driving cars on road, confirmed by DMV’s spokesperson on Tuesday. The company has plans to start road test later this year.
Faraday Future is building a $1 billion EV factory in Nevada and also negotiating another 157-acre manufacturing site on Mare Island.
The DMV has so far approved 14 companies to perform road test on self-driving technologies, including BMW, Bosch, Cruise Automation, Delphi, Drive.ai, Faraday Future, Ford, Google, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Tesla, VW, Zoox.
China Manufactured 1.76 Billion Lithium-ion Batteries in First 4 Months
According to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, in January-April 2016, 1.76 billion lithium-ion batteries were produced in China, an increase of 14.3% over the same period of last year. 0.5 billion were made in April alone, an increase of 11.1%.
In January-April, China manufactured 8.695 million e-bikes, an increase of 12.3%.