Tesla is ditching Home Depot as a sales partner for its residential clean energy products, CEO Elon Musk revealed in an e-mail to his employees on Tuesday. The move is part of a broader restructuring of the company which also entails layoffs of about 9 percent of the Tesla workforce, not including hourly production associates involved in manufacturing.
Musk wrote:
"In addition to this company-wide restructuring, we've decided not to renew our residential sales agreement with Home Depot in order to focus our efforts on selling solar power in Tesla stores and online. The majority of Tesla employees working at Home Depot will be offered the opportunity to move over to Tesla retail locations."
In February this year, Tesla announced it would set up "mini solar stores" in 800 Home Depot locations. The expansion was intended to help Tesla bring its renewable-energy products to a wide audience.
SolarCity, which Tesla acquired in 2016, used to sell its systems via Home Depot stores. Tesla discarded the SolarCity name post-acquisition and now sells its solar products under the Tesla energy banner.
WATCH: Tesla to layoff 9 percent of workforce
