German battery company Sonnen may not be a big name as Tesla in US market, but it is surely aiming to match the success of its US-native competitor. With the opening of its new US headquarters in Los Angeles, Sonnen is selling its new home battery, Eco Compact that comes with a 4kWh capacity. Not just for power storage, but this new home battery pack can be used for solar self-consumption — just in case you need backup power.
Let us brief you about both home batteries by comparing them. The Sonnen battery comes with a power inverter and guaranteed for up to 10,000 cycles. This battery can be bought in 4kWh increments, all the way up to 16kWh with minimum base cost of $5,950. On the other hand, Tesla’s 7kWh Powerwall is priced at $7,340 even after purchasing an inverter. Tesla only guarantees its battery to last up to 5,000 cycles. Although the Tesla home battery has more capacity as compared to Sonnen home battery, but Tesla’s Powerwall battery will not last as long as Sonnen’s.
But this mere drawback doesn’t mean Sonnen can take down Tesla. In fact, Tesla’s Powerwall 2.0 is already on track for its 2016 launch and it will be jam packed with better features in affordable price range. So, you can surely wait for the new version to see what Tesla has in store for its consumers.
Coming back to Eco Compact home battery, according to Sonnen they are actually targeting net metering marketers (such as Nevada and Hawaii), which allows people to sell energy back to offset the cost of panels. This is because their home batteries will help the user to store solar energy, while reducing 40-percent energy bills.
Via: DigitalTrends
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