Tesla announced today that it closed the deal with Panasonic for manufacturing of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules at SolarCity’s Buffalo solar ‘’Gigafactory’’. Company released the press release where is stated that: ‘’Tesla and Panasonic have finalized an agreement this week to begin the manufacturing of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules at the Buffalo, NY factory. These high-efficiency PV cells and modules will be used to produce solar panels in the non-solar roof products. When production of the solar roof begins, Tesla will also incorporate Panasonic’s cells into the many kinds of solar glass tile roofs that Tesla will be manufacturing. All of these solar products will work seamlessly with Tesla’s energy storage products, Powerwall and Powerpack. Production of the first PV modules will begin in summer 2017, and will ramp to 1 Gigawatt of module production by 2019.

As Tesla and Panasonic begin production, Buffalo will continue to expand Tesla’s American manufacturing base and create thousands of new jobs in the coming years. Tesla reaffirms SolarCity’s commitment to create over 1,400 jobs in Buffalo—including more than 500 manufacturing jobs. Panasonic, with its technological and manufacturing expertise in PV production, will also work with Tesla on developing PV next generation technology at SolarCity’s facility in Fremont, CA.

As part of the agreement, Panasonic will cover required capital costs in Buffalo and Tesla is making a long-term purchase commitment from Panasonic. The collaboration extends the established relationship between Tesla and Panasonic, which includes the production of electric vehicle and grid storage battery cells at the Tesla Gigafactory.”

Tesla’s global fleet made 500 million electric miles in less than 3 months

Tesla’s global fleet made 500 million electric miles in less than 3 months, which have reached 3.5 billion miles. First billion was reached in the summer of 2015, and second in April this year. 3 billion was reached in October 2016, and the last 500 million company has reached on Christmas day.

At the same time while the electric miles are stringing, the Silicon Valley carproducer is adding Autopilot data no matter on the activity of the system. More than 1.3 billion miles for Autopilot data was accumulated last month. We can presume that the number is now over 1.5 billion.

The company has been keeping track of its fleet mileage with a counter on the ‘’Electric Road Trip‘’ webpage.