Duracell has just announced its first product in the home battery storage market – competing directly with Tesla.
Well, it finally happened. After sitting on the sidelines as the solar battery storage boom unfolded around it, the world’s biggest name in batteries has finally joined the party.
Today, April 1, at a glittering press event in Bethel, Connecticut, Duracell’s VP of Solar Storage, George Leclanche, unveiled the Duracell Ultra Lithium Home Battery – which will be available in priority markets including Australia by the end of the year.
—
Please note: this article was published as an April Fool’s prank and is SATIRE. Funnily enough, it looks like Duracell have a home battery in the works – more details on Duracell Home Battery here.
—-
Mr Leclanche claimed:
“Today, the world’s biggest battery brand joins the effort to deliver a solution to the world’s most pressing problem – the need for 24 hour renewable power. This battery, using our proven Lithium Manganese Dioxide technology, the largest battery Duracell have never made, will allow households around the world to power, not just their toys, flashlights and remote controls with Duracell, but their whole house.”
And in what might be seen as a dig at the current home storage leader, Tesla, he added:
“Consumers now have a choice. They can power their home with a battery from Duracell – a company which has been developing batteries since the 1920’s. Or they can put their trust in a company that hasn’t even finished building its first battery factory yet. At Duracell, our leadership team focus on one thing: batteries. We are not distracted by sending people to Mars or preventing an AI apocalypse.”
Ouch.
But corporate rivalry aside, how does the Duracell Ultra Lithium Home Battery stack up against its biggest competitor, the Powerwall? The full specs are yet to be released – but here are the two specs that were announced today, along with our analysis of how they compare to Tesla’s offering:
Operating voltage: 9 Volts DC
This is considerably lower than Tesla’s rather dangerous-sounding 350-450 Volts DC. I know which terminals I’d rather lick! One-nil to Duracell.
Ease Of Installation: “Miniature Snap” technology – means true plug-and-play for solar installers.
With Tesla’s home battery requiring a qualified electrician with a full set of tools, Duracell’s plug-and-play ‘Miniature snap’ technology should be much cheaper and quicker to install. Two-nil to the Duracell Bunny.
So, at this early stage, it looks like Tesla could be feeling the heat from Duracell in the large-scale battery storage market. Let’s see if the Powerwall 2, due for release in July, can move the advantage back to Tesla.
About Finn Peacock
RSS - Posts
Nice April first joke Finn 🙂
Hahha…but its April Fools day today…and more Solar power nonsense..
April fools………….?
OK… April 1st, I guess(?!)
How could this be true since April 1st hasn’t happened yet in the US???
Great point 🙂
Seriously tho… why the hell HAVEN’T they brought out a product to compete damn it!???? 0.o
Absolutely – Duracell should leverage their brand.
Finn, does this mean the Duracell can be used for “off-grid” ?
Didn’t mention the negative of 9v system – much heavier cables required for a given POWER reguirement (higher current draw) compared to higher voltage system.
I don’t think the Duracell is a battery, but as the name implies a cell. The powerwall I believe consists on perhaps 100 cells of 3.7 V all in series, and perhaps several banks of them.
When first the rechargeable AA bats with their chargers came on the market I was one of the first to purchase such,,, but like many others have long given up on them. I wonder if the Powerwall will be the same fiasco. Finn says it may be 5 years before we have some real solution to off grid storage. I am happy with my lead gel bats, didn’t want to wait for the pie in the sky. Perhaps flow cell together with ucaps may be a solution.
john nielsen
Apparently the choice of spokesman for Duracell went down like a lead (acid) balloon,???
I understand that Duracell Solar battery now is available and is already installing around Queensland. Guys, do you have any more information and how compares to the competition?
why have you not had an article on Growatt home batteries, I have had mine installed for over 18 months now and are very satisfied with them they are actually making me money. They work perfectly and the only thing is that I wished they had installed three 6.5 watt batteries instead of two, I think that 3 batts would have allowed me to run my aircon a lot longer before the went flat.