With 85,000 Powerwall battery packs reserved in less than a week, and demand for battery storage products “just nutty,” at least one observer is suggesting the home storage market could swamp the capacity of Tesla Motors’ new gigawatt-scale battery plant under construction outside Reno, Nevada.
In the first week after Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s much-anticipated announcement, the company received enough Powerwall orders to soak up the available supply through mid-2016. “The number of orders suggests that the entire capacity of Tesla’s giga-factory, which should begin operation some time next year, will be taken up entirely by home battery production,” The Green Optimistic reports. “A quick reminder here, the initial plan for the factory was to mostly focus on electric vehicle battery development.”
Musk’s solution “is to try to build a bigger factory.”
Luleva notes that Tesla’s pre-order list “is more like a collection of email addresses that belong to people interested in more information, something like a subscription to receive updates.” According to skeptics, she writes, “it would be surprising if even 50% of the pre-orders translated into purchases.”
