Mercedes takes on Tesla developing home battery unit
Mercedes Benz has recently developed its own rechargeable at-home battery, entering the space currently dominated by Tesla. The batteries are currently being sold and installed in Germany only, but are set to expand internationally “soon”. The Mercedes battery stores 2.5 kWh of energy, compared to Tesla’s Powerwall which stores 6.4 kWh, however the Mercedes unit is designed to be modular, with the ability to stack up to eight batteries, giving a maximum of 20 kWh if needed.

Mercedes-Benz

Many people are familiar with Tesla's at-home battery, but Elon Musk's company isn't the only automaker offering at-home battery solutions.

Mercedes-Benz has its own rechargeable at-home battery. The batteries are being developed by the automaker's subsidiary Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE and are currently being sold and installed by utility and solar tech companies in Germany.

The batteries were announced last year and are currently only available in Germany, but Mercedes told Tech Crunch the program is set to expand internationally.

The standing, grey battery stores 2.5 kWh of energy. That's not a lot of storage, considering the average person in the US uses about 30 kWh of power a day. But the Mercedes unit is meant to to be modular, with the ability to stack eight for a maximum capacity of 20 kWh.

For reference, Tesla's famed Powerwall holds 6.4 kWh, and you can combine up to nine Powerwalls for more energy. A start-up called Orison is using a similar model as Mercedes-Benz by offering a 2 kWh battery, with the ability to link five units together.

You can track your energy storage with a Mercedes-Benz app. Mercedes-Benz

Like the Powerwall, The Mercedes-Benz battery can store solar energy overnight and can draw energy from the utility grid during non-peak times. The price of a unit hasn't been disclosed.



Although we have yet to see the Mercedes-Benz battery in the US, don't count them out just yet. Daimler, Mercedes-Benz's parent company, invested $500 million in a second battery site that will begin production in the summer of 2017, Tech Crunch also reports.