Tesla Teams Up With SolarCity In New Product Venture
Tesla Motors, the American premium electric car maker, has over the years pushed the boundaries of battery technology to power its vehicles. However, Tesla is now going into a new frontier, and that is home batteries, with the unveiling of its new lithium-ion battery dubbed Powerwall.
According to Tesla, the product is designed to re-charge through the power grid overnight when electricity rates are low, or solar panels and can also act as a power back-up during power outages.
According to Bloomberg, Tesla has also partnered with SolarCity, a solar energy provider, which now offers the Powerwall to its customers to go with the panels.
In reference to an email sent by Jonathan Bass, the company’s spokesman, the report states that the product is being offered to new clients in two payment plans. For the base system which offers 10 kilowatts an hour, there is a leasing plan from $5,000.
The price of the new Tesla product is inclusive of installation and maintenance, and is in the prepaid category. For those who wish to buy it, the price is set at $7,140. Installation by the company will begin in October. However, Tesla Motors Inc. gave the price of the same product on Thursday, excluding installation and the inverter to be $3,500.
So, should consumers be excited about the new Tesla product? Well, according to Kimbal Musk, one of the Tesla’s board members who spoke to CNNMoney, the battery will be able to reduce electricity bills by up to 25 percent. The Verge also states that Tesla is working on a related product for businesses called Powerpack, which will come in 100 kWh blocks that can be scaled up to produce more than 10MWh.
Talk of the battery first started in April when Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a tweet about the planned unveiling of a new product line, which he also hinted would not be a car. However, a letter from Tesla’s VP of Investor Relations, Jeff Evanson, to investors outlining the new venture confirmed what it was. In the correspondence, the Tesla executive stated that Tesla was going to announce two kinds of batteries – a home battery and a large utility one.
Tesla first broke into the spotlight when it produced the first fully electric road-legal production sports car in the United States called the Tesla Roadster.
At the beginning of this year, there were rumors that the car maker was in acquisition talks with Apple following a meeting between execs from the tech giant and Tesla.
[Images via Tesla/ChinaFotoPress/Stringer/Getty Images]
