“We occasionally adjust our global pricing to best reflect what we’re offering to customers and the value of our products,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The price adjustments made today are the latest example of that.”
It is the second price rise for the Tesla Powerwall 2, which stunned the industry when it was first released two years ago by effectively halving the price of battery storage in one fell stroke.
That price forced many other battery storage manufacturers to follow suit, and has meant that they have made little profits – Tesla included – although manufacturing efficiencies have led to reduce costs.
Production and availability of the Tesla Powerwall 2 units has also been impacted by the company’s focus on the Tesla 3 electric vehicle, and ensuring it meets production targets as it expands the range of that model, and starts to deliver to overseas and right hand drive markets.
Local installers and consumers say it is hard to obtain enough stock, and consumers often have significant delays in getting the product installed.
Tesla says, however, that further product releases are coming soon, including a solution for 3 phase homes in Australia (expected late 2018 – 2019), greater connectivity and boosted reliability in its devises (2019), and newly designed “accessory hardware” that matches the battery’s minimalist design (2019).
The company is also upgrading its mobile app, giving full control and management of systems, enabling customers to switch modes and delivering real-time view power flow and energy usage. This is also expected in 2019.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on October 15, 2018 8:46 am
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I wonder how they quantify "greater connectivity and boosted reliability"? Interested to see where this one goes.
....the NBN ?
As opposed to the new LGChem 13kWh battery which is available now to any installer for under $7,300.
Tesla - Powerwall, price up and supply availability slow. LG must be rubbing their hands just now.
Interesting that one of the reasons why they are unable to supply these is blamed on the Tesla 3 cars using the battery packs.
How on earth would they be able to make double the amount of cars (if they were on track to meeting their production goals) If they are struggling to make enough battery cells now?
I think they're very busy expanding the battery factory which is only partly built
chemistry of batteries is different to cars. production lines will certainly have commonality but the ultimate products are not interchangeable.
I did not think about if the Car battery lines could in fact produce the power-wall battery packs. I forgot that they do use different chemistry, makes sense.
Well, Tesla and Panasonic are busy installing more battery cell production lines. But it takes a while to get them up and running. Probably by this time next year the volume will be up.
The reality is that demand is higher than their production can currently meet, they are spending to increase production (the gigafactory is being expanded rapidly but is still a fraction of it's eventual size and capability), they need to increase the rate of expansion faster still, and people are willing to pay more. So they might as well increase the price to provide more of the revenue that they need.
"boosted reliability" sounds like a good idea. I had one installed last week and it worked for exactly one day before failing. Now Tesla are telling me it needs to be replaced and that there's a 4 to 6 week wait for delivery :(