Tesla, which has disrupted the auto industry, is now looking to disrupt the utilities business.
Confirming previous reports, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told analysts on Wednesday during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that it plans to offer batteries for homes and businesses.
“We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” Musk said, according to Bloomberg.
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Although it's currently unclear how much the batteries will cost, Musk said they would be unveiled in the next month or two. The move isn't a total surprise. Last February, Morgan Stanley predicted that Tesla could use its lithium-ion battery technology to disrupt the utilities industry.
In fact, some DIYers have already started doing that.
In 2013 The Atlantic reported that some Californian homeowners were interested in using Tesla's battery packs in conjunction with solar panels to power their homes for $40 per month. However, PG&E, the local utility, was charging a prohibitive $800-plus fee. In 2010, the California Public Utilities Commission also awarded $1.8 million to SolarCity to study the feasibility of using such batteries for that purpose.