Tesla to announce home, commercial battery lines next week

Tesla is set to introduce a new product line on April 30, but it won’t be anything on four wheels like fans of the electric automaker might expect.
Following a cryptic Tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk on March 30 that stated a “major new Tesla product line — not a car — will be unveiled” on April 30, a note to investors on Wednesday revealed just was Musk was alluding to — a set of batteries intended for home and commercial use.

“We have decided to share a bit about what we will announce on the 30th,” Jeff Evanson, Tesla’s VP of investor relations, said in the note, which was obtained by BuzzFeed News. “We will introduce the Tesla home battery and a very large utility scale battery. We will explain the advantages of our solutions and why past battery options were not compelling.”

Although we’ll have to wait about a week for full details, the batteries are expected to store energy from solar panels for later use. It’s also possible that the batteries could be used to tap the main lines during off-peak hours to help slash energy costs.

The new batteries could be produced at Tesla’s planned Gigafactory.