silentflight
100 W
Elon Musk introduced the Tesla Powerwall last night- a battery bank meant to store solar power for use at night, or in blackouts or to time shift cheap night power from the utilities for use in the daytime. The 10 kWh version will sell for $3500 and will begin shipping in limited numbers in the next few months. Supply should jump considerably when the gigafactory comes online in 1-2 years.
As I look at it from an ebiker's perspective, the most interesting thing is that Tesla is selling it's batteries for $350 per kWh retail. This is about $4.10 per cell - retail. At the moment I am assuming the Powerwall uses the same 18650s used in Tesla cars. No doubt the actual cost of the bare cells is a lot lower than the retail price and the production costs will fall substantially when the new factory comes online- good news for the price of batteries in the next few years. We would need to disassemble the bank to get the cells, but overall I think this is very good news for availability of quality 18650 battery packs at reasonable prices. It certainly points the way toward a mass market ebike with a quality mid-drive and 500 Wh battery for $2500 or less once economies of scale are reached.
As I look at it from an ebiker's perspective, the most interesting thing is that Tesla is selling it's batteries for $350 per kWh retail. This is about $4.10 per cell - retail. At the moment I am assuming the Powerwall uses the same 18650s used in Tesla cars. No doubt the actual cost of the bare cells is a lot lower than the retail price and the production costs will fall substantially when the new factory comes online- good news for the price of batteries in the next few years. We would need to disassemble the bank to get the cells, but overall I think this is very good news for availability of quality 18650 battery packs at reasonable prices. It certainly points the way toward a mass market ebike with a quality mid-drive and 500 Wh battery for $2500 or less once economies of scale are reached.