The two-personal committee will include Donald Kendall Jr., chief executive of investment management firm Kenmont, and Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner of DBL Investors.

SolarCity’s board has given the committee “exclusive authority to evaluate SolarCity’s long-term business plan and standalone opportunities for value creation against a broad range of strategic alternatives”.

The fact that just two of SolarCity’s eight board members will be on the committee – with the others having themselves – will fuel criticism that the companies are too closely related for a fair evaluation to take place, even if many of the board members are remaining officially on the sidelines.