In an internal meeting, Tesla teased new and updated energy products coming later this year along with a better customer front-end for solar installations.
Tesla’s energy division definitely lives in the shadows of its automotive business. When most people think “Tesla,” they think of electric cars, but the company has had a renewed focus on energy products lately through its Tesla Energy division.
We noted that Tesla’s solar division had its best quarter in four years last quarter. Some of the improvements have been achieved through an improved product offering.
In an internal Tesla Energy-wide meeting obtained by Electrek today, Tesla explained that it improved its energy product offering by going from a mix of third-party equipment to Tesla equipment with its own software integration over the last two years.
During the meeting, Seth Winger, senior manager of solar products engineering at Tesla, said that new and updated Tesla Energy products are coming this year:
The engineer said that he can’t reveal specifics yet, but he commented:
In 2022, we are heavily investing in Tesla products. I can’t say exactly what is coming we want to maintain confidentiality but across the board on PVs, on Solar Roof, on Powerwall look forward to greatly improved installation efficiency, aesthetic, and product performance.
Winger also said that some people on the call know it already – and if they do, they should “keep it a secret” – but there are pilot programs coming soon.
Electrek recently reported that Tesla is testing a new version of Solar Roof (v3.5) on employees’ homes, but Winger now makes it sound like Tesla is also working on a new and updated Powerwall and solar panels.
During the call, Tesla also announced that it is about to deploy a new “Intereactive layout experience” for customers.
A Tesla manager said that customers are going to be able to interact directly with the layout and help Tesla with the project:
Customers are going to be able to engage with zero-touch layouts. They are going to be able to see a max kW design in their Tesla account.
They are going to be able to tell Tesla things like where to drop its equipment for the project.
The company is still working on the new interface, but based on early testing, Tesla expects that the new portal is going to reduce post-permit redesign requests by 20%, utility rejections by 30%, and “average handle time (chat)” by 10%.
Internally, Tesla is also updating its grid UI to more easily and quickly understand the status of a job flow.
The company is hoping that these new products and tools will help Tesla Energy achieves new highs during the second half of the year.
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