AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla is making whole-home battery backup dramatically more accessible. Tesla Energy has launched a new "Powerwall Lease" in Texas that bundles two Powerwall units with its Tesla Electric retail power service for a net cost of about $35 a month, with $0 upfront installation. A Powerwall setup has traditionally meant writing a five-figure check, so turning that into a utility-style monthly bill is a meaningful step toward putting resilient home energy within reach of far more households, as first reported by Electrek.
How the $35 backup lease works
The offer pairs hardware and electricity in a way only Tesla can. The base lease for two Powerwalls runs about $122 per month in the first year. Enroll in the Tesla Electric Backup plan and you qualify for an $87 monthly credit, bringing the effective cost to roughly $35 plus tax. There is a one-time $100 order fee, and standard installation is included at no additional charge.
Customers manage everything through a single Tesla app and get Storm Watch, which automatically tops up the batteries to full ahead of severe weather so the lights, refrigerator, and other essentials stay on through an outage. Tesla says it has now installed more than one million Powerwall units worldwide, a milestone that underscores how quickly home energy storage has scaled.
A smarter energy ecosystem
What makes the economics work is Tesla's virtual power plant. The company can afford the generous monthly credit because it dispatches stored energy from enrolled batteries back to the ERCOT grid when demand and prices spike, creating value for the grid and the customer at the same time. It is the same model that previously paid Powerwall owners $10 million through virtual power plant programs, except now the benefit is baked directly into the lease.
