"Incredible Growth Rate"! Compared to delivery volume, Tesla's more eye-catching move is the deployment of energy storage, this "AI trump card"

Tesla holds a low-key trump card, not AI, not robots, but solar and energy storage business.

Although Tesla's second-quarter delivery data released on Tuesday exceeded expectations, driving Tesla's stock price up 10% intraday, the good news is not just this: Tesla's solar and energy storage business also saw new breakthroughs in the second quarter.

AI fever speeds up Tesla's layout of energy storage systems

On Tuesday, Tesla's energy subsidiary Tesla Energy announced that it deployed 9.4GWh of battery energy storage products in the second quarter of 2024, setting a record high for the quarter, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 129% and a year-on-year growth of 157%, showing astonishing growth.

Some industry analysts pointed out that adding Tesla's 4.1 GWh battery energy storage deployment in the first quarter, the cumulative figure for the first half of the year has reached 13.5 GWh, very close to Tesla's 14.724GWh energy storage deployment for the whole of last year. (3.889GWh in the first quarter, 3.653 GWh in the second quarter, 3.980 GWh in the third quarter, and 3.202 GWh in the fourth quarter of 2023)

Tesla Energy stated that the impressive results achieved in the second quarter of this year were mainly due to the continuous expansion of the Megapack at the Lathrop Super Energy Storage Factory in California. Megapack is a large-scale commercial energy storage system developed by Tesla.

Tesla's energy storage business mainly includes two types of products: Powerwall and Megapack. Powerwall is a household energy storage system that can store electricity generated by solar panels for use during the night or power outages. Megapack is a large-scale commercial energy storage system suitable for large commercial and industrial customers such as data centers, hospitals, and schools.

The overall annual production capacity of the Lathrop Super Factory is 40GWh. Judging from the energy storage deployment results in the second quarter of 2023, the Lathrop Super Factory is close to its operational limit. However, this does not mean it is Tesla's overall energy storage limit, as the energy storage super factory in Shanghai is still under construction.

In May this year, Tesla's Shanghai energy storage super factory started construction, which is Tesla's first energy storage super factory outside the United States. It will mainly produce Megapack, and the annual production capacity of the Shanghai energy storage super factory is expected to reach 10,000 units, with an energy storage capacity of nearly 40GWh. Production of Megapack is expected to start as early as the first quarter of 2025

Morgan Stanley Talks about Tesla's Trump Card: Solar Energy and Energy Storage Business

For Morgan Stanley, the most attractive aspect of Tesla's future is its new energy and energy storage business.

On June 25th, Morgan Stanley released a report stating that Tesla holds a "key trump card" and will be a crucial "ace in the hole" for the next round of AI investments. This "trump card" is not Tesla's AI or robotics business, but its solar energy and energy storage business.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas is bullish on Tesla's energy storage business, believing that the surge in AI will drive electricity demand and position Tesla as a key player in the U.S. energy market.

Jonas stated that AI data centers are being built across the U.S., which will become "power-hungry beasts," putting a significant strain on the U.S. power grid.

"We recently released an analysis showing that by 2030, the electricity consumption of U.S. data centers could be equivalent to that of 150 million electric vehicles. In other words, from 2023 to 2027, the projected growth in electricity consumption by U.S. data centers is equivalent to adding 59 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads, representing a 21% increase in the total number of vehicles in operation."

Jonas predicts that with the rapid development of the energy storage market, Tesla Energy's revenue in the 2024 fiscal year will exceed $7 billion, and by 2025, the profit margin may surpass that of Tesla's automotive business. In the future, the growth rate of Tesla's energy storage business will outpace its solar business, making a significant contribution to Tesla's overall profitability by 2030, and providing Tesla Energy with an estimated value of around $130 billion