Two weeks ago, US-based electric car maker Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) registered a wholly-owned subsidiary in Israel under the name Tesla Motors Israel. The reason for registering the company appears to be the regulations governing vehicle imports to Israel, which require the importer to be a company registered in Israel.
According to the entry in the registry of companies, the business of the company is "The importation, distribution, sale, maintenance and repair of electric vehicles and mobile energy storage systems, energy generation systems and equipment, including solar panels, solar energy systems, and/or other solar energy conversion systems, and in general all other energy generation systems, accompanying products, parts, accessories and accompanying equipment, and to develop, own, operate, purchase, sell, maintain, plan, engineer, obtain, build, install and order fixed energy storage systems, and energy generation systems and equipment (whether directly or by setting up special purpose entities formed for the purposes of maintaining assets as mentioned.)"
This description indicates that Tesla seeks to operate in Israel not only in selling electric vehicles, but also in renewable energy, particularly solar energy. Tesla has a subsidiary that develops and sells solar panels and advanced roofing tiles. The company was founded in 2016, and recently began selling a new advanced generation of "Solarglass Roof" that it claims converts solar energy to electricity more efficiently than any other existing solution. Tesla's solution for private houses integrates with new charging stations, enabling people to store energy and use it for domestic purposes, such as charging an electric car or in the home, rather than transferring solar energy to the national grid. The venture began as a collaboration with SolarCity, which Tesla acquired in 2016 for $2.6 billion. The Israeli company's registered address is the law firm of Naschitz Brandes Amir & Co., which represents Tesla in Israel.
As revealed by "Globes", in the past few months Tesla has taken several preparatory steps towards entering the Israeli market, among them talks with electricity charging installation companies, with a view to deploying the company's proprietary charging network in Israel, and publication of help wanted ads to recruit manpower, which were quickly removed because of the high number of responses.
