Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company’s energy storage product Powerwall now has a backlog of up to 80,000 orders, with a total value of more than $500 million. However, due to the current global chip shortage, Tesla is currently unable to increase production to meet this demand.
As an energy storage system, Powerwall allows users to completely get rid of the grid and achieve self-sufficiency in electricity. Musk said when Tesla launched the Powerwall that the product works perfectly with the solar system, for example, it can store the solar energy generated during the day for use at night. He also said at the time that Powerwall is more sustainable out of the box and that Tesla electric cars will be able to use clean and abundant solar energy.
But for a long time, the production of Powerwall has been restricted. In several major markets such as the United States and Australia, the demand for Powerwall has always been strong, but although Powerwall’s current production has increased substantially, its output still cannot meet market demand.
According to recent media reports, it took five years for the number of Powerwall installations to reach 100,000. Subsequent to rapid development, the number of home installations of the product reached 100,000 last year alone. Musk said that the production and installation of Powerwall are increasing significantly, but Tesla still has a backlog of 80,000 Powerwall orders to show that it can be delivered.
Regarding the order of Powerwall, Musk revealed during his testimony in the Delaware Justice Court. In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity, a solar equipment manufacturer, for $2.6 billion. Musk defended the acquisition when he testified in court. Previously, Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit claiming that Musk promoted Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity based on his own rather than the company’s interests.
Musk said in court, SolarCity for the acquisition of Tesla is a complete beauty of the transaction, in order to integrate Tesla Powerwall to SolarCity residential solar products. Musk said in court that although Tesla currently has about 80,000 Powerwall orders, due to the shortage of chips in the supply chain, Tesla can only produce 30,000 to 35,000 Powerwalls this quarter, which is less than the order demand Half of the amount.
In order to meet market demand, Tesla suspended its own installation of Powerwall. In addition, Tesla recently released a new version of Powerwall 2+ with higher power supply capacity and is already discussing the issue of increasing the production capacity of the new version of Powerwall 2+.
