The Heat Pump Tesla Abandoned Is Now the Mission for Drew Baglino

Tesla’s pivot toward humanoid robots and robotaxis has left a significant gap in its original energy mission. While the company reoriented its focus, former Senior Vice President Drew Baglino is moving to fill it by building the residential heat pump Tesla once promised but never delivered.

The strategy is a direct continuation of an idea Tesla floated in 2022. During the Q4 2021 earnings call, Baglino and Elon Musk discussed a residential heat pump designed to manage both home HVAC and water heating. At the time, Baglino noted that a home unit would be easier to manufacture than a vehicle because it lacks the same constraints on mass, volume, and energy. Tesla never shipped the product.

Baglino’s new venture, Sadi Thermal Machines, is now attempting to execute that abandoned roadmap. The startup was incorporated in June 2025 and operates out of Scotts Valley, California, alongside Heron Power—a solid-state transformer startup that raised $140 million in February. Sadi appears to be staffed with several Tesla alumni.

This move represents more than just a new business; it is an attempt to capture a market Tesla essentially surrendered. Baglino brings specific technical authority to the hardware, having been a named inventor on the patent for Tesla’s “octovalve” thermal system. That technology, which manages cabin, battery, and motor temperatures in the Model Y, demonstrated his ability to manage complex thermal engineering.

The implications are clear for the climate tech sector. As Tesla shifts its capital and engineering talent toward autonomy and robotics, the vacuum in residential energy hardware creates an opening for specialized players. Baglino is not just entering a market; he is attempting to build the specific piece of the sustainable energy transition that his former employer walked away from.

The question for the industry is whether a startup can scale the manufacturing complexity of thermal hardware without the massive capital advantages of a company like Tesla.