Tesla Will Build a Second Massive Battery System for Australia

Tesla’s massive Powerpack in South Australia has already been so successful other states in Australia are scrambling to get their own. Tesla will again team up with Neoen wind farm to build another Powerpack system in Victoria in the SouthEast of Australia. Australian media reported that Tesla had successfully won the contract to build a 20 MW battery system to support the 204 MW wind farm at the Bulgana Green Power Hub. Although smaller than the South Australian project, this will still be a big endeavor for the Tesla/Neoen collaboration. Franck Woitiez, Neoen’s managing director, commented: “The performance of the South Australian battery is outstanding. The Bulgana battery is primarily going to provide energy to Nectar Farms and may support the grid in the future.” 

Tesla has more than 100 days for new project

The team has a more relaxed timeline than the South Australian project which Musk had boasted could be online within 100 days or it would be free. The new Victorian plant is planned to come online in approximately 18 months. Tesla’s involvement in South Australia’s energy sector was started after the state experienced widespread power failures due to severe weather in the Summer of 2016. Tesla boasted they could fix South Australia’s energy problems within 100 days or the solution would be free. After receiving 91 proposals from energy providers around the world, The South Australian Government accepted Tesla's proposition. The 100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack system went live on December 1st 2017. While Tesla was able to keep to its construction schedule down under the same can’t be said for its own car production. 

Tesla sales at risk due to production delay

The electric car company has increasingly delayed production on its mass-market Tesla Model 3. These delays in production are possibly having an impact on consumers. While Tesla is still the number one top seller of all-electric vehicles in the United States, its competitors are closing in. Tesla reported sales of 101,312 vehicles in 2017, a 33 percent increase from 2016. But the Chevrolet Bolt EV is steadily making its presence felt in the EV marketplace. Chevrolet reported it sold 23,297 Bolt’s in 2017. While this number fell short of the company’s target of 30,000 deliveries for the year, the numbers are still good for a car that was only released nationally in August.

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The Michigan based car company delivered 3,227 Bolt’s in December in comparison to only 1,550 Tesla Model 3 sedans delivered in the final quarter of 2017. The delay in Tesla’s production schedule is certainly impacting its ability to compete with the similarly priced Chevrolet Bolt. Overall sales of Electric vehicles are increasing in the United States. The most confirmed data available shows that more than 82,000 all-electric vehicles were sold in the U.S. through October. These numbers are a 30.4 percent increase from 2016. However the total EV market share is still less than 1 percent of the retail car market in the U.S. IHS Markit analyst Tom Libby noted that 2017 saw only one new all-electric model added to the market in 2017 and that most of the growth of the sector occurred in just five models: the Bolt, Ford Focus EV, Nissan Leaf and Tesla’s Model X and Model S.