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Last year, Tesla unveiled the Powerwall: a rechargeable battery pack for the home intended to store solar energy and provide backup power when needed. Although it was only available in limited quantities, Tesla quickly racked up some 38,000 preorders and declared that the product was sold out through the first half 2016. Now, the company has moved on to the next version, with CEO Elon Musk announcing that a new Powerwall will likely be available this summer.
"further step change in capabilities."
"We've got the Tesla Powerwall and Powerpack, which we have a lot of trials underway right now around the world. We've seen very good results," said Musk during a talk to Tesla car owners in Paris on January 29th. "We'll be coming out with version two of the Powerwall probably around July, August this year, which will see further step change in capabilities."
Unfortunately, Musk doesn't elaborate what this "step change" might mean for consumers, and although the phrase suggests a large change, Musk himself has previously said that the rate of improvement in battery tech isn't that substantial. Last year, for example, he noted that while Tesla's upcoming Gigafactory will be able to deliver better batteries than those the company currently purchases from Panasonic, they would still only offer "moderate improvements." What this means for the Powerwall isn't clear, but we'll hopefully find out more later in the year.
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