Elon Musk's electric car and energy company Tesla has applied for a licence to supply electricity to British homes.

If approved by the energy watchdog Ofgem, it would allow Tesla to take on the big firms that dominate the UK energy market to provide electricity to households and businesses in England, Scotland and Wales as soon as next year.

Tesla, which is best known as one of the world's biggest makers of electric vehicles (EV), also has a solar energy and battery storage business.

Tesla did not immediately reply to a BBC request for comment.

Ofgem can take up to nine months to process applications for energy supply licences.

Tesla Electric already operates a power supplier in Texas that allows owners of its EVs to charge their cars cheaply and pays them for feeding surplus electricity back to the grid.

The application, which was signed by Andrew Payne who runs Tesla's European energy operations, was filed late last month.

Tesla has sold more than a quarter of a million EVs and tens of thousands of home storage batteries in the UK, which could help it gain access to a sizeable customer base for an electricity supply business.

The Ofgem licence application comes as Tesla's EV sales have fallen across Europe in recent months.

In July, UK car registrations of Teslas fell by almost 60% and by more than 55% in Germany, industry data showed.

That took the firm's sales decline in the month to 45% in 10 key European markets.

Tesla has faced tough competition from rival EV makers, especially China's BYD.

Musk has also been criticised for his relationship with US President Donald Trump, although the two have now very publicly fallen out.

His involvement in right-wing politics in the UK, Germany and Italy, meanwhile, has drawn ire from some of Tesla's customers.