A California car dealership follows Tesla’s lead by selling solar alongside EVs

Capistrano Volkswagen/Mazda, a car dealership in San Juan Capistrano, California, has partnered with San Diego-based solar and battery installation company Stellar Solar to offer EV customers solar, battery storage, and EV connectivity to power their cars with clean energy.

Car dealership + solar

Stellar Solar says the partnership is the first of its kind between an auto dealer and solar company in Orange County.

(We at Electrek are wondering whether it’s the first of its kind in the United Stsates – let us know down in the comments if you know of other solar-car dealership partnerships.)

Capistrano Volkswagen/Mazda owner Miles Brandon (pictured above left) said:

It was [Stellar Solar’s] tagline of Electrify Your Life that made forming a strategic partnership and offering their full suite of services to our customers a no-brainer. I’m excited to be on the forefront of this and contributing to the clean energy movement.

And Kent Harle, cofounder and CEO of Stellar Solar (pictured above right), added:

I’m thrilled to be working with such an established Orange County business. Going solar and offering our clean energy solutions to their customers is a perfect example of being on the cutting edge and offering what homeowners in the area are demanding.

Further, Stellar Solar is installing a combined 134kW solar system on the dealership’s two buildings featuring 538 Q Cells 480-watt panels. They’re expected to produce enough power to offset 68% of the kilowatt hour consumption of the Volkswagen facility and 100% of the kilowatt hour consumption for the Mazda facility. 

Electrek’s Take

Of course Tesla already sells EVs, solar, and storage. Car dealerships aren’t typically at the cutting edge when it comes to EVs, so to see this one similarly embrace EVs, solar, and battery storage is exciting. And, if you go to Capistrano Volkswagen/Mazda‘s website, the ID.4 is the very first pulldown on its website, and that’s unusual for US car dealerships.

Car dealer-solar partnerships should be the norm – they’re greater than the sum of their parts. Imagine going to buy a Volkswagen ID.4 – because these folks sell VWs, after all (Mazda is only selling 560 2022 EVs in California alone this year) – and also being able to purchase a solar, storage, and an EV charger. A one-stop shop makes so much sense as it makes it much easier to form a clean energy strategy and budget.

The easier it is for consumers to buy into EV, solar, and storage, the more folks are going to do it.

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