Can Elon Musk Still Stop Climate Change?

Last week, Tesla Inc.’s stock dropped to its lowest level in almost two and a half years following another fatal vehicle crash involving its much-touted autopilot navigation system, and a vow from Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk to introduce more “hardcore” cost-cutting measures to save the company from running out of cash in 10 months.

So it should come as no shock that Tesla, yet again, appears to be delaying its plans to ramp up its solar business. Reports surfaced last week that Tesla is exploring different products for its solar Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York, due to slumping sales, and that the vast majority of solar cells manufactured at the plant by its partner Panasonic are actually shipped to overseas rivals, instead of being used in Tesla’s “Solar Roof.” With so much scrutiny focused on delays and shortcomings in Musk’s vehicle portfolio, it’s easy to forget how core this solar product was to the automaker’s sustainable future just a few years ago, back when Musk sold it as the missing piece of his clean-energy vision.