Elon Musk: Tesla gets into the energy business one – Wirtschaftswoche

Matthias Hohensee

The batteries that power the Tesla’s electric cars, will in future also provide offices and homes. The first major customer will be the online retailer Amazon. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sees Germany as one of the most important markets.

After all the speculation and innuendo by Elon Musk about the “missing link in the chain”, it was not surprising that the head of Tesla late Thursday local time in Los Angeles presented:. energy storage for domestic use and for business

The house battery called powerwall should over the coming three to four months, so Musk announced initially in offered the US. The 1.3 meters by 86 centimeters wide and 18 centimeters thick box that is screwed to the wall, there is a 7-kilowatt hour version from 3000 dollars and a 10-kWh version for $ 3,500. In addition there are installation costs. Up to nine batteries can be connected together. Tesla granted ten-year guarantee.

“Most sense the batteries make in combination with a solar system,” Musk said. “One can thus provide completely myself with energy as required.” Those who do not generate their own electricity, can at times when electricity is cheaper, charge the battery and then consume energy at peak times.

The main startups by Elon Musk

• 1995 Zip2

  Internet media company, acquired by Alta Vista for $ 307 million in 1999, Musk receives $ 22 million

• 1999 X.com

  Musk starts the online payment service, PayPal is from the later. 2002 Ebay buys the company for 1.5 billion dollars. Musk collected $ 165 million

• 2002 SpaceX

  A childhood dream come true: Musk founded his space company

• 2004 Tesla Motors

  Musk participates in the electric car manufacturer, later co-founder next to Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, Ian Wright and Jeffrey Brian Straubel

• 2006 Solar City

  Lyndon and Peter Rive lease and install with its start-up photovoltaic systems; Musk co-funded the company of his two cousins ​​

“Our first foreign market is Germany be” Musk announced and referred to the high density of solar systems. German Solar Stromer could thus take advantage of the energy from its own production itself, rather than at lower prices to feed into the public grid. In addition, the public power grid could be relieved in this way at peak production times.

A second version called Power Pack with 100 kWh is aimed at industrial customers and will be offered for $ 25,000. The first customers in the US will be Amazon, and the supermarket chain Target. The Hamburger green electricity provider Lichtblick to support Tesla initially in Germany in the integration of batteries into the electricity grid. However, the cooperation will be expanded in the future to the EU and the US, New Zealand and Australia.

batteries for storing solar energy has been around a long time. So far no one has however managed to offer large-scale high-capacity energy storage, which also make economic sense. Electric cars are therefore still an expensive luxury whose costs even after many years of ownership can not be offset by the fuel savings. That is also the reason why electric cars – Silicon Valley and Norway excluded times – still are exotics on the road. Low battery prices can only be achieved through effective production at higher volumes. These more markets must be opened up.

electric car sales 2014 in Germany

• 10th

  Model: Audi A3 e-tron

  Search by car: 460 vehicles

  Source: Federal Motor Vehicle Office KBA

• Place 9

  Model: Renault Twizy

  Search by car: 573 vehicles

• No. 8

  Model: VW E-Golf

  Search by car: 601 vehicles

• Place 7

  Model: Nissan Leaf

  Sold cars : 812 vehicles

• Place 6

  Model: Tesla Model S

  Search by car: 814 vehicles

• 5th

  Model : Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

  Search by car: 1,068 vehicles

• Place 4

  Model: VW E-Up

  Search by car: 1,354 vehicles

• Place 3

  Model: Renault Zoe

  Search by car: 1,498 vehicles

• Place 2

  Model: Smart Fortwo ED

  Search by car: 1,589 vehicles

• # 1

  Model: BMW i3 *

  Search by car: 2,231 vehicles

  * including models with Range Extender

Exactly intends Musk. In the Nevada desert, it can just for five billion dollars to build a battery factory, which is based on decades of experience of cooperation partner Panasonic and should reduce the price of lithium-ion batteries by a third.

It was clear that the so-called Gigafactory be oversized for the electric car industry. For this, the demand is too modest in the coming years. Electric car leader Tesla was able to deliver S sedans than a year earlier in the first quarter of approximately 55 percent more Tesla. But 10,000 vehicles worldwide per quarter are tiny. Especially, sales slowed in the core US market. By comparison, Daimler sold 642,000 cars in the first quarter around the world

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