Tesla will acquire SolarCity in an all-stock transaction valued at $2.6 billion.
The luxury car maker in June made a bid to buy SolarCity, with the aim of using the alternative energy source as a primary charging capacity for Tesla's electric cars.
The final transaction fee comes in $200 million under initial predictions, which tipped a $2.8 billion stock-swap deal. Still, Tesla CEO Elon Musk—a member of SolarCity's board of directors and owner of more than 22 million of its shares—stands to gain a pretty penny from the sale.
"Solar and storage are at their best when they're combined," the Tesla team wrote in an announcement. "As one company, Tesla (storage) and SolarCity (solar) can create fully integrated residential, commercial, and grid-scale products that improve the way that energy is generated, stored, and consumed."
A Silicon Valley-based start-up, SolarCity is best known for installing residential solar panels, and generated a bit of interest in 2011, when Google invested $280 million in the company.
Moving forward, SolarCity's operations will be completely integrated into Tesla. For consumers, that means a seamless electric car shopping experience, buying an electric vehicle and a home solar charger in one place.
"Now is the right time to bring our two companies together: Tesla is getting ready to scale our Powerwall and Powerpack stationary storage products and SolarCity is getting ready to offer next-generation differentiated solar solutions," the automaker said. "By joining forces, we can operate more efficiently and fully integrate our products, while providing customers with an aesthetically beautiful and simple one-stop solar [plus] storage experience: one installation, one service contract, one phone app."
Over the summer, Musk said integrated product offerings could appear as early as 2017. There will be no change to any current SolarCity products, nor will the acquisition affect sales of the Tesla Model 3, expected to hit lots next year.
"While today's news is a big step, it isn't the finish line," Tesla reminded customers.
Before the transaction can close—likely in the fourth quarter—the deal requires shareholder and regulatory approval, and must meet other closing conditions.
Tesla could certainly use a win: Following a recent fatal crash involving a Model S, the company has been fielding bad press and government inquiries suggesting the Autopilot feature was at fault. But Tesla last week told the US Senate Commerce Committee that the May 7 collision with a tractor-trailer was more likely the fault of the vehicle's emergency or automatic braking systems—which it considers separate from Autopilot.
According to Reuters, Tesla is mulling two possibilities: the car's radar and camera failed to detect the truck, or it detected and disregarded it as part of a design meant to avoid false braking. The vehicle's "radar tunes out what looks like an overhead road sign to avoid false braking events," Musk wrote in a June 30 tweet.
Tesla did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment; a spokeswoman, however, told Reuters the company did not suggest the vehicle's cameras or radar "caused" the accident.
Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary findings, which note that the vehicle was moving at 74mph in a 65mph zone when it crashed.