SolarCity, Honda join hands to deliver cheaper solar power to customers and dealers

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Greentech Lead America: SolarCity has partnered with American Honda Motor to make solar power more affordable and available to Honda and Acura customers in the U.S.

The partnership provides a cleaner source of electricity at a lower cost than utility-supplied power. It also aims to address global climate change by reducing CO2 emissions from home, business, and transportation energy use.

The companies plan to establish an investment fund to finance $65 million in solar projects to assist Honda and Acura customers and dealers with the initial cost of solar power installation. The fund hopes to remove a pervasive obstacle to the broader adoption of solar power: the high initial investment associated with installing solar power.

Honda and Acura dealerships in SolarCity’s service territory may also be able to take advantage of the offer to install affordable solar power through the partnership.

Additionally, Honda and SolarCity will explore opportunities to integrate solar power and electric vehicle recharging, envisioning a future in which Fit EV and Accord Plug-In Hybrid owners will be able to charge their cars from the power of the sun, thereby reducing household CO2 emissions to nearly zero.

Through the partnership, Honda and Acura customers and dealerships will be able to install solar power with little or no upfront cost, depending on the customer’s choice of plans. Customers will be given a choice to pre-pay for their solar electricity or pay a monthly payment that will be lower than the cost of their current utility bill, with insurance, repairs and monitoring service included.

Steven Center, vice president of the Environmental Business Development Office of American Honda Motor Co., said, “We believe Honda and Acura customers are going to be very interested in going solar once they find out that they can install solar at their home with little or no upfront cost, can lower their monthly utility bill, and can make a positive contribution to protecting the environment.”

“By making it easier and more affordable for its customers to use clean power, Honda is reinforcing the fact that solar is the new normal,” said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. “This is an unprecedented partnership—few companies have made a more substantive or comprehensive commitment to environmental responsibility than Honda.”

Honda has developed numerous technologies to improve the fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions from its products, including the just released 2014 Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid, the Fit EV, Civic Natural Gas and the Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell electric vehicle.

editor@greentechlead.com

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