The electric vehicle company owned by Elon Musk, Tesla Motors, has bought the SolarCity solar power firm, also owned by Musk, in a transaction worth over £2 billion.

The new combined business will allow Tesla to further leverage its technologies for battery power storage as a complementary fit to the solar generation capabilities of SolarCity, providing commercial synergies and greater development opportunities.

Musk described the merger as a 'no-brainer', explaining that it would allow the two businesses to integrate their offers together in a cost-effective, logical way rather than working separately and going out to market as standalone entities.

Both firms released a merger statement saying that it was the ideal time to join the two businesses. Tesla is scaling up to increase its Powerpack and Powerwall storage systems, and SolarCity is forging ahead with next-generation solar energy solutions, which it believes will be markedly different from existing solar power technology.

The merged company will allow greater operational efficiencies, product integration and customer benefits. It will bring beautiful and simple products to market that facilitate the solar power generation and storage experience - a single installation, a single service contract and a single integrated phone app.

The transaction was originally mooted this summer and faced a number of hurdles as shareholders in both businesses questioned the value in merging. However, the resulting transaction will see both Tesla Motors and Solar City expecting to realise over $150 million of cost efficiencies in the first year of combined trading alone, along with additional reductions in installation and hardware costs. 

Additionally, SolarCity will benefit from the existing international Tesla retail network as a framework on which it can build its own global reach and drive forward solar product sales to new markets.