With Chevrolet and other automakers catching up to Tesla’s electric vehicle market disruption, Elon Musk’s company is naturally exploring entry into new industry sectors. On Thursday night, Tesla announced just what that direction will be – and it was not quite a surprise to anyone that it unveiled Tesla Energy, a unit within the company devoted to “energy innovation.”
Now, the latest announcement does not mean Tesla Motors is pulling out of the automotive business. It is clearly more about growth and production of brand new products: a line-up of batteries to be used in homes, businesses and by utilities to help create and store clean energy and help humans wean off fossil fuels for good.
The household category will be impacted first via the Powerwall Home Battery, a lithium-ion battery that customers can install on walls. The battery will be on sale this summer in two versions at two price points – $3,500 for the 10kWh version and $3,000 for a 7kWh battery.
Tesla Energy will design and produce solar energy storage systems for use by businesses. The “major selling point is expected to be the cost savings generated through the use of energy storage management,” Seeking Alpha reported. Tesla has recruited Target, Amazon and EnerNoc as early testers.
Finally, Tesla Energy aims to create more green and efficient grid storage systems for utilities – 500kWh to 10MWh+.
With its ambitious clean tech agenda, Tesla is certainly upping the ante that will surely draw response in the Silicon Valley and in Detroit – not to mention China.
How the company plans to integrate this new side of its business with its car side should be interesting to see unfold in the near future.
Photo Credit: Tesla Motors
