Tesla hikes price of Powerwall 2 home battery in Australia

The price of the 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery has quietly jumped by $800 in Australia, just weeks after the price for the popular home battery was raised in its home market.

One Step Off The Grid reported early last month that the electric car and battery storage giant had increased the price of its Powerwall 2 in America by $US500 in response to sustained “through the roof” demand, which was in turn being driven by searing heatwaves, wild fires, and the recent blackouts in California.

At that time, the retail price of a Powerwall – installation costs not included – via the Tesla Australia website was $A11,700. This week, the website puts the cost at $A12,500.

Clearly, the supply-demand pinch Tesla is experiencing with its popular home battery extends beyond the US market, even as a new shipment of nearly 800 Powerwall 2 units arrives on Australian shores.

And – as noted last month – prices for the Powerwall 2 in Australia have fluctuated in the past, with Tesla raising them by nearly 20% in October 2018, and then in July of 2019 dropping them back down to $A11,700, from $A12,350.

Back in 2018, Tesla said of the price moves: “We occasionally adjust our global pricing to best reflect what we’re offering to customers and the value of our products.”

And while through-the-roof demand is a nice problem to have, the price hike points Tesla in the opposite direction to the rest of the home battery market, which is charting a steady – if relatively slow – decline in prices.

Just this week Alpha ESS released its own 13kWh-plus home battery offering for a price somewhere south of $A10,000, including installation.