Musk ‘violates’ SEC settlement with solar production tweet

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is courting trouble again with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his controversial Twitter activities, this time revealing Tesla’s solar production numbers on the micro-blogging platform.

Replying to a follower, Musk tweeted he was hoping the company would manufacture about 1,000 solar roofs a week by the end of the year.

“How’s solar roof tile progress going? You were working on a new version (V3?) of that, right?” asked the user. Musk replied: “Spooling up production line rapidly. Hoping to manufacture 1000 solar roofs/week by end of this year”.

The tweet may have violated the settlement that Musk reached with the SEC in April this year.

According to the settlement reached between the two parties, all tweets from Musk about Tesla’s financial health, sales or delivery numbers would have to be pre-approved by a company lawyer.

According to a report in Forbes late Wednesday, neither Tesla nor Musk previously issued a projection for how many roofs the company will produce by the end of this year.

Musk and the SEC reached the settlement agreement over the ‘funding secured’ debacle, which originally prompted the SEC to attempt to install oversight over Musk’s tweets.

In February, the SEC asked to hold Musk in contempt of court for allegedly violating a previous public disclosure settlement.

Tesla and SolarCity have developed a Solar Roof system that integrates the solar cells and modules inside the structure of the roof rather than just panels on a roof.

Musk first unveiled prototypes of Tesla’s Solar Roof tiles in 2016.

Solar Roof integrates with the Powerwall home battery, allowing users to use solar energy whenever they choose and providing uninterrupted electricity during grid outages.

Source: IANS