Tesla has started offering a Powerwall lease through Tesla Electric, its retail electricity provider in Texas, letting homeowners get whole-home battery backup without buying the hardware outright. The program, detailed on Tesla’s support page for the Powerwall Lease, is limited to Texas areas with retail electric choice and requires the customer to also sign up for Tesla Electric’s Backup plan.
The lease covers two Powerwall units installed at no upfront installation cost. Tesla’s support page states that Tesla Electric customers receive a monthly bill credit of $87 that is applied against the lease invoice each month, and that the system keeps a minimum 20% charge reserved for outages so owners retain backup power even during normal use. The page also describes Storm Watch, a feature that automatically charges the Powerwalls ahead of forecast severe weather.
Tesla has not published the base lease price on its own site, but multiple outlets that reviewed the offer’s paperwork report the same figures. Electrek reports the lease starts at $122 a month in year one, with a 3% annual increase after that, plus a one-time $100 order fee. After the $87 Tesla Electric credit is applied, the effective cost works out to roughly $35 a month plus tax, as long as the customer stays enrolled in Tesla Electric. Switching to a different electricity provider drops the credit and raises the payment back to the full lease rate.
The offer does not apply to homes with solar panels already installed, and nonstandard electrical work needed for the installation can add cost and affect credit eligibility, according to Tesla’s support page. Enrollment, permitting, and inspection have to be completed before the monthly credit starts showing up, and Tesla says credits begin within two billing cycles of the system getting permission to operate.
Why Tesla is doing this
The arrangement lets Tesla dispatch stored energy from leased Powerwalls back to the Texas grid during periods of high demand, a practice it already runs through its virtual power plant program with Tesla Electric in Texas. Bundling battery hardware with the electricity plan gives Tesla more batteries to draw on for grid support while lowering the up-front cost that has kept many homeowners from adding backup power in the first place.
For now the lease is available only in Texas retail-choice areas, and Tesla has not said whether it plans to expand the structure to other states where it sells Powerwall and operates virtual power plants, such as California.
Photo by Lena Netkach.