Tesla confirmed its plan to supply its personal electrical transformers, a brand new enterprise for the automaker, however it began on the incorrect foot.
Many prime Tesla engineers left over the past yr to construct their very own transformer startup.
With the disclosing of the Megapack 3 and Megablock this week, Tesla introduced that it’ll produce its personal transformers.
Transformers are vital to electrical energy transmission. They regulate voltage up or down to take care of energy effectivity.
They haven’t modified a lot within the final hundred years regardless of being a rising enterprise price about $65 billion yearly within the US.
It’s dominated by a small group of corporations consisting of Hitachi Vitality, Siemens Vitality, and Prolec GE, and a few see it as being primed for disruption. They primarily serve electrical utilities for vitality transmission and scaled with them, however the market has modified drastically within the final decade with now many extra indepdent vitality producers, via photo voltaic, contributing to the grid.
Vitality transmission and transformation have to evolve with the market.
With a deep experience in energy electronics, Tesla was seen as a possible disruptor within the sector, however a signifcant portion of that experience has now moved out of Tesla to deal with the issue.
Earlier this yr, we reported on Drew Baglino, Tesla’s long-time senoir vice-president of engineering, launching a brand new startup, Heron Energy, to construct new solid-state transformers. The corporate increase $38 million to finance the enterprise.
Having led energy electronics improvement at Tesla for years, Baglino knew precisely who to recruit and he managed to persuade lots of Tesla’s prime energy electronics engineers to hitch:
- Chris Tilton, who was a senior supervisor accountable for energy electronics design for car, charging, and vitality merchandise at Tesla, is now director of mechanical engineering at Heron.
- Johnny Gannon, a 8-year veteran at Tesla who most not too long ago led product for Tesla Charging and Vitality software program, left the automaker to hitch be head of merchandise at Heron.
- John Mellinger, who labored on energy electronics design for Powerwall 3, left Tesla in April 2025 to hitch Heron.
- Chengcheng Yao, led the design of energy electronics at Tesla ranging fromRobotaxi to Powerwall 3 in addition to the next-generation Megapack and Supercharger merchandise, has left the automaker to turn into Principal Energy Electronics Engineer at Heron.
- Ciaran Doyle, a veteran of greater than 12 years at Tesla who led a number of charging applications, left final month to hitch Heron.
- Hussam Alatrash spent 9 years at Tesla the place he led for energy electronics controls crew for car charging, vitality merchandise, and charging. He’s now at Heron.
- Yanjun Shi developped energy electronics management for Cybertruck, New Mannequin 3/Y, and RoboTaxi. He left Tesla earlier this yr to hitch Heron.
- Yingzhuo Chen was a 7-year veteran of Tesla’s electronics design crew earlier than becoming a member of Heron late final yr.
- Abolfazl Sadeghpour, a PhD in mechanical engineering, left Tesla after 5 years in February to hitch Heron.
These are simply a number of the expertise that went instantly from Tesla to Heron. Baglino being one among Tesla’s earliest engineering leaders, he additionally recruited plenty of former prime Tesla expertise who had left the corporate years in the past.
Baglino advised Latitude Media earlier this yr:
“The fascinating factor that I realized at Tesla is energy electronics, particularly highly-integrated energy electronics…it’s extremely multi-physics and you’ll’t simply simulate it with off-the-shelf instruments that you just optimize. Solely a pair hundred, possibly a pair thousand, professionals on the planet really know tips on how to make tremendous optimized, tremendous cost-effective and energy dense energy converters.”
He’s now assembling the most effective groups on the planet to deal with the issue.
Heron’s first answer, the Heron Hyperlink, is a solid-state transformer able to regulating voltage and frequency, enabling extra invert-based energy to a grid whereas lowering the danger of blackouts.
This is called “grid-forming” and it’s a sector that Tesla stated it wished to contribute to in its unveiling of the brand new Megapack 3 and Megablock this week.
At this level, it’s unclear who’s additional alongside within the improvement of grid-forming transformers.
Tesla stated that its new Megapack 3 goes to enter manufacturing towards late 2026, however it’s unclear if that may also embody its new transformer, that are extra associated to the brand new Megablock product slightly than Megapack 3.
As for Heron Energy, the corporate goals to have its first manufacturing line up and operating by 2027.
Electrek’s Take
I like competitors and I feel that is finally going to be nice for the grid and the adoption of renewable vitality and vitality storage.
Nevertheless, it does additionally spotlight one among my important considerations with Tesla for the final 2 years: an exodus of prime expertise.
It’s to not say that there are not any gifted folks at Tesla anymore, however as you may see above, I carefully observe the comings and goings at Tesla, and today, it’s virtually completely goings, together with from long-time veteran engineers who drastically contributed to Tesla’s success.
If Tesla needs to stay a powerful firm, I feel it ought to tackle this expertise exodus.
