Elon Musk announced that Tesla is going to bundle its solar products, solar roofs and solar panels, with its Powerwall home battery pack going forward.
You are not going to be able to buy one without the other starting next week.
Last month, Electrek exclusively reported that Tesla is stopping to take orders for Powerwall without solar panels or solar roofs.
Powerwall has become extremely popular.
Wait times have been increasing despite Tesla’s best effort to increase production, and the company even increased the price of the battery pack twice in just a few months.
It made sense to limit the ways to buy the product by linking it to other Tesla products.
Now Tesla is going a step further and making it the other way around too.
CEO Elon Musk said that people are only going to buy solar products with a Powerwall:
“Starting next week, Tesla Solar Panels & Solar Roof will only be sold as an integrated product with Tesla Powerwall battery.”
While people could still order solar panels and solar roofs without a Powerwall after the change last month, it now sounds like the change is going both ways.
Tesla is now looking to only sell its home energy products as a bundle with energy generation (solar roof and panels) and energy storage (Powerwall).
Update: Now Musk also added that now solar power will only directly feed into Powerwall:
“Solar power will feed exclusively to Powerwall. Powerwall will interface only between utility meter & house main breaker panel, enabling super simple install & seamless whole house backup during utility dropouts.”
Electrek’s Take
This is not a giant change considering that Tesla already made the move to only sell Powerwalls through its solar installations last month.
As for people ordering solar without Powerwall, I am sure it was a decent chunk of Tesla’s solar orders considering the cost of a Powerwall, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s around half or even the minority of the projects.
Powerwall integration actually was one of the advantages of buying Tesla solar, but the company also partnered with other solar installers to add Powerwall to their offerings.
I’d rather Elon address the solar roof price controversy, especially going back on contracts that were already signed, but I guess that’s not happening.
What do you think of this latest move from Tesla? Let us know in the comment section below.
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