Tesla Unveils The New Powerwall

So Tesla made a big deal about their super secretive conference on Thursday evening, and in the end (as I predicted) it was just a big battery.

To be fair, the Tesla Powerwall is a big battery that can be mounted on the wall and operates when main power grids fail - but this isn’t something particularly revolutionizing.

However, despite the 10 kilowatt-hour (kWh) model being priced at $3,500 (or $350 per kWh), it’s still worth the money. Of course, people already living in solar powered homes have similar products, but other products are much more expensive. Primus Power’s battery costs $500 per kWh, and recent reports all seem to indicate that as of January 2015, “the capital cost of batteries today is closer to $500-600 kWh”.

Before Thursday’s big “unveil”, everyone assumed Mr. Elon Musk’s newest product was going to cost either double to triple the amount that it actually costs - who knew the Powerwall would be this cheap?

Most people that will want to buy the Powerwall will be homeowners that want to incorporate renewable energy sources to power their home, but even if people without solar energy will also look to the Powerwall because it will reduce the electricity bill by storing energy during the lull times (usually at night) and then recycling it back into the system when it’s more expensive.

For everyone thinking that $3,500 is way too expensive - don’t worry. Powerwall will get cheaper! Once production moves to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, Musk said that the production price (and end-user price) will drop. Most likely it will happen sometime next year.

Also, it’s one good looking battery - most are massive and unsightly.