Carmaker Nissan has announced a rival to Tesla's Powerwall home battery pack called the xStorage. Like other residential batteries, the device is supposed to pull cheap electricity off the grid during off-peak hours and feed it back into the home when power is in demand and expensive. You can hook it up to renewable energy resources to charge it up off-grid, and Nissan says a companion app will help owners easily monitor usage.
The xStorage is on sale in Europe only, and Nissan reportedly has no immediate plans to bring it to the US. Prices start at €4,000 ($4,560) for a 4.2 kWh model, which includes installation. By comparison, Tesla's 6.4 kWh Powerwall costs $3,000, but that doesn't cover installation and extras. (These raise the total cost to $5,000, according to The Financial Times.) Carmaker Mercedes has also announced plans to sell its own residential batteries (2.5 kWh each, combinable in groups of up to eight), but hasn't confirmed pricing.
This clutch of launches and unveilings shows the interest in the home battery market, but it's still not clear whether these devices make enough economic sense to capture a broad audience. The battery packs listed above aren't big enough to power a whole house through extended power outages, and will usually take years for owners to recoup the cost (this time period may shorten if a home-owner has alternate energy sources like solar panels, but then these cost too). Still, companies obviously believe there's potential here, and more products will only help develop the market and lower prices.
Comments
Does the US Tesla price include sales tax, and the European Nissan version include VAT as that’s quite a substantial factor.
By wdowell on 05.12.16 7:20am
These things would’ve been damn during my years in India. Blackouts and brownouts were rather routine, and starting a diesel power generator obviously had significant lag.
By Exhale on 05.12.16 7:50am
Probably out of reach for most in developing countries unfortunately.
By My Only Name Change on 05.12.16 2:13pm
this is great, but we need a better tech than lithium
By a7medo778 on 05.12.16 9:11am
Now if only Nissan would compete with the model 3 and release a good looking electric car with a lot of range. The leaf is ugly.
By The_Falcoholic on 05.12.16 9:16am
Also don’t call the car a Leaf. No one aspires to drive a Leaf.
By Omnimoak on 05.12.16 9:57am
And, now that we’re putting the world to rights, can we please get over this whole ‘lowercaseSomething’ thing? xStorage is a stupid name, and for that alone, Tesla’s solution is the better choice.
Tesla Powerwall.
Solid.
By Ciordad on 05.12.16 10:38am
Never thought much about it, since I couldn’t get past the looks. But yes, Leaf sounds like a weak vehicle. Electric cars need to look better to be taken seriously. And we definitely need more electric sports cars as well.
By The_Falcoholic on 05.12.16 1:43pm
How about "Tesla-killer"? That usually goes well.
/s
By mikedon on 05.12.16 3:12pm
Nissan, like other automakers, trying desperately hard not to get ‘disrupted’ by silicon valley
By llort on 05.12.16 10:35am
Do many cities in the US have demand-based pricing for electricity?
By frankwick on 05.12.16 10:56am
I thought the same, I believe it’s usually tiered by use. One price for up to 500kwh, another up to 2000, etc.
A quick search doesn’t show a lot (some mention of tests in various areas, especially California) so it would be interesting if anyone actually has a comparison of rates.
By z_ on 05.12.16 12:50pm
Yet again, thank you tesla.
By TCrimson05t on 05.12.16 12:10pm
How many years is it rated to run? This is a very important factor. Tesla had an even cheaper (per KWh) Powerwall of 10KWh for $3500, but it got discontinued because people don’t want to pay this much for a battery that may last only two years.
By mikedon on 05.12.16 3:09pm