Would this change the fact that they just manufacture the "vessel" not the contents, or distribute the contents from the source? I see this more as "democratizing power", giving people more flexibility, and indeed maybe even changing the way we use the grid. But it certainly wouldn't put Tesla in the same segment as companies like PG&E or TEPCO.
Hard drive manufacturers are never considered "content companies" regardless of how they sell or lease the drives, and what content they store. And Toyota or VW are not considered oil companies even if their cars probably move more gas than many small ones.
They would not be competing with PG&E (which has monopoly on power grid) but with companies that generate energy to PG&E e.g. the companies that burn coal or run gas peakers.
Currently Tesla mostly sells batteries to such companies and they in turn make money selling energy to PG&E (for example PG&E instead of buying energy from a company using gas peakers to generate it, they would buy it from company that "cached" energy in a battery and is selling it to PG&E during peaks).
It's a natural progression for Tesla to become such company themselves as they make the most costly part of running such business (i.e. battery).
It'll take several years (there's regulation around this stuff and Tesla needs to learn the new business) but that's where they are heading.
Tesla was installing 1,000 solar roof per week in the US, just before COVID19. They plan to ramp that quickly and roll this out globally. If they're able to deploy solar roofs in volume for both residential and commercial building, you can expect them to slowly become one of the biggest generator of renewable energy.
Would this change the fact that they just manufacture the "vessel" not the contents, or distribute the contents from the source? I see this more as "democratizing power", giving people more flexibility, and indeed maybe even changing the way we use the grid. But it certainly wouldn't put Tesla in the same segment as companies like PG&E or TEPCO.
Hard drive manufacturers are never considered "content companies" regardless of how they sell or lease the drives, and what content they store. And Toyota or VW are not considered oil companies even if their cars probably move more gas than many small ones.