Tesla's New Product Secretly Tested By 330 Consumers

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry has revealed some interesting information about Tesla Motors Inc's TSLA new product line.

Major new Tesla product line -- not a car -- will be unveiled at our Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs 8pm, April 30

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2015

Outside of the fact that it will not be a car, very little is known about what Tesla plans to announce. Some experts think it could be a motorcycle. Others assume that it will be an in-home battery that involves solar energy. If Chowdhry's information is correct, it seems that Tesla is ready to launch the latter.

Testing, 1, 2, 3…

In a note to investors, Chowdhry said that he knows of two people that own a residential battery from Tesla. He spoke to one of those owners and detailed the following bullet points:

• "There are about 230 Households in California, who currently have Tesla Stationary Battery installed in their Homes. Another about 100 Households are out of California. This customer had the Tesla Stationary Battery for about One and a Half years, and is installed in his garage."
• "The Battery has to be installed 1.5 feet above the ground, and should have an open space of 1 ft on all sides.
• "The battery does not make any noise, does not need any maintenance, has no drippings."
• "The Battery has the inverter also."
• "The battery is about 3 ft tall and 2.5 ft wide and looks good."
• "The installer offered a choice between 10KWH and 15KWH; he went with 10KWH."

Chowdhry's report also indicates that the 10 kWh battery could be priced at $13,000 with a 50 percent rebate from PG&E Corporation PCG. The nameless owner was offered many pricing plans (which he apparently cannot remember), but chose a plan that allowed him to pay $1,500 down and $15 per month for 10 years. After that the installer will retrieve the battery pack.

How Smart Is It Anyway?

A few more bullet points from Chowdhry's note:

• "His battery can be controlled from his iPhone, and has a web application also."
• "His Battery is set for the following: Charging from Solar, and when the battery is fully charged, energy is sent to the PG&E Grid for rebate on Electric bill."
• "Charging directly from the Outlet. He does it...He charges the battery at night at $0.11 and then at 3:00 PM sells it back to Grid at $0.43. He tells me he makes between $10 to $12 every month doing this."
• "Fully off Grid. His battery can be charged by a regular generator also."
• "He has not had any problems with the Battery System...and gets OTA Software updates almost a couple of times a month."

Last year Chowdhry attended a sustainability conference and learned that Google Inc GOOG is "widely believed" to have a few Tesla (commercial-grade) batteries in some of its buildings. Apple Inc. AAPL might also purchase some of these batteries for its new campus. Chowdhry believes that Tesla's commercial-grade batteries are rated at more than 400 kWh. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.