Tesla Motors will unveil a new product line next month, co-founder and CEO Elon Musk announced Monday, and it won’t be a car.
Major new Tesla product line — not a car — will be unveiled at our Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs 8pm, April 30
So what’s that mean? Since it’s Elon Musk, the possibilities are nearly endless — solar-powered remote-control rockets? Hyperloop for your home? — but most likely it will be the not-quite-as-sexy field of home energy-storage batteries.
During Tesla’s quarterly earnings report last month, Musk alluded to just such an product:
Tesla-made lithium-ion batteries — using the same technology that powers its Model S electric cars and likely to eventually be built at the Nevada gigafactory — would store excess energy accumulated during the day from solar panels for use at night, when the panels would be idle. Such a system would reduce or even eliminate homes’ and businesses’ reliance on utility companies.
Tesla already supplies San Mateo-based SolarCity — of which Musk is chairman — with such batteries.
While such energy-efficient technology could allow many homes to essentially provide their own electricity, Bloomberg News reports that the power companies themselves could be major beneficiaries, allowing them to store excess clean energy and better manage the power grid.
Energy storage is seen by some as the next big thing in Silicon Valley, as the growth in population and energy usage forces sustainable, eco-friendly solutions.
Tesla is not alone in the battery-storage market. San Jose solar-panel manufacturer SunPower plans to start offering home batteries, CEO Tom Werner told the Merc last year, as are a handful of Silicon Valley startups.
Meanwhile, in car-based Tesla news, Musk over the weekend vowed to revamp his company’s sales strategy in China, where Model S sales have been softer than expected. Bloomberg News reported Tesla is rapidly expanding its charger network in China, as well as adding more luxury features to the cars and retraining its sales force.
At top: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, center, with CTO JB Straubel, left, and Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen at their factory in Fremont in 2012. (Patrick Tehan/Staff)
