Tesla: A Carmaker Or Grid-Storage Company? 151
cartechboy (2660665) writes "Let's be real, the three Detroit automakers were skeptical of Tesla Motors, and rightfully so. But at this point, it's pretty hard to deny the impact this Silicon Valley automaker is having on the industry. Now there's a new question buzzing around: Is Tesla Motors actually a carmaker, or is it really just a grid-storage company? If you think about it, the company's stock price is too high for Toyota or Daimler to just buy it outright. So maybe Tesla's gigafactory will not only make batteries for its own electric cars, but it could also sell battery packs to electric utilities and others. In reality, the gigafactory could become its own separate company and just sell the battery packs to Tesla, and others."
Panasonic (Score:5, Informative)
The gigafactory is basically a Panasonic battery factory. Tesla is involved because they want it in the US and are a major consumer of Panasonic batteries, but all the tech is Japanese. So yeah, Panasonic is in the grid storage business. They do home battery packs and wind farm output smoothing in Japan, and maybe soon in the US.
Re:Panasonic (Score:5, Informative)
Tesla is putting up something like $2B of the total estimated $5B price tag. So they would be a partner, not just a consumer.
But you are correct that US news outlets were overplaying Tesla's involvement in the project and underplaying Panasonic's.
Re:There is already a Tesla home battery pack (Score:5, Informative)
What we did was sign a lease with the company, they own the panels, we own the electric. We pay them a fixed price on the panels per month which is around 25% of what we were paying prior to the installation. At the end of the month, Any excess power created above the lease price is paid to us (not the lease company) At the end of last year we made 1800$ in electric generation (after paying the fees, the actual check was somewhat higher, around 2800)
I dont know what company we are using as my father is the one who deals with it
Re:Better Yet (Score:4, Informative)
The surface area of the roof isn't really enough to provide much solar PV electricity, but that isn't to say it can't be used for something. For a few years now Toyota have offered a solar panel on the roof of the Prius that can run the AC while it is parked without using fuel or depleting the batteries. The Nissan Leaf uses a solar panel to keep the 12V battery topped up (not the main lithium pack, the 12V vehicle power lead acid) and I'm surprised more manufacturers don't do that now.