Tesla has reported a significant year-on-year increase in business for its stationary energy storage systems, but more attention has been focused on delays in Model 3 deliveries and a decline in solar installs.

Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch’s son James is one of two new independent board directors at Tesla, while the EV, tech and energy storage maker confirmed that former SolarCity CTO Peter Rive is leaving the company.

Electric car maker turned ‘integrated sustainable energy company’ Tesla installed 98MWh of energy storage in the final quarter of 2016, according to its financial results released last week.

EV manufacturer and battery specialist Tesla Motors has reported strong results with a return to profit in Q3 this year and expectations of this positive performance to continue into Q4.

Despite its thirteenth quarterly reverse on the spin, Tesla chairman and chief executive Elon Musk predicts Tesla and SolarCity will create an automotive-energy giant worth US$1 trillion.

Tesla Motors’ proposed US$2.6 billion purchase of SolarCity could “substantially” increase SolarCity’s sales, reckons industry veteran Jigar Shah, clean energy entrepreneur and founder of SunEdison.

After claiming that interest in Powerwall and Powerpack was “overwhelming” and “crazy” seven months before the first commercial installations began, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that close to 400,000 people have reserved a Model 3, due out next year. Andy Colthorpe asks how much Tesla’s overall success in its stated mission to accelerate the transition to clean energy is pinned to a successful roll-out from the Gigafactory for the car.

Tesla’s lithium-ion ‘Gigafactory’ will be built in Nevada, after company officials including chief executive officer Elon Musk appeared alongside the US state’s governor at a press conference held yesterday afternoon.