Walmart, Tesla look to address issues surrounding solar systems

FILE PHOTO: Walmart signs are displayed inside a Walmart store in Mexico City, Mexico, March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo

(Reuters) - Walmart Inc <WMT.N> and Tesla Inc <TSLA.O> are looking to address all issues surrounding the solar installations at Walmart stores, the companies said late on Thursday, two days after the retailer sued the electric carmaker for "widespread negligence" that led to repeated fires at the installations.

The companies also said they were looking to "re-energizing Tesla solar installations at Walmart stores, once all parties are certain that all concerns have been addressed."

"Above all else, both companies want each and every system to operate reliably, efficiently, and safely," the companies said in a brief joint statement.

FILE PHOTO - Cars pass by the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory 2, which is also known as RiverBend, a joint venture with Panasonic to produce solar panels and roof tiles in Buffalo, New York, U.S., August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

In the lawsuit, Walmart accused Tesla of having untrained workers putting up shoddy installations and showing "utter incompetence or callousness, or both," and asked for the removal of solar panels from more than 240 of Walmart's U.S. stores.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru and Nandita Bose in Washington; editing by Gopakumar Warrier)