Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors looks set to establish its first presence in South Africa, it was reported on Friday.
Htxt.africa reported that Tesla is planning to set up a local office early in the new year. The plan is not to sell Tesla’s high-end electric cars in South Africa — not yet, at least — but rather the company’s energy storage solutions.
According to Htxt, the office will be run by Evan Rice, who has been CEO of renewable Western Cape-based energy specialist GreenCape for the past three years. He will be Tesla’s sole employee in South Africa, at least for now.
The local office will reportedly sell Tesla’s Powerpack battery systems, which are aimed at industrial applications.
Tesla Powerpack is described as a utility-scale rechargeable lithium-ion battery that is designed to store energy off the grid. Designed in a modular way, multiple units can be connected, creating capacities that in theory could power entire cities.
The Powerpack is effectively an industrial version of Tesla’s Powerwall, a battery solution for use in the home and in small businesses announced by Musk in April 2015. A number of local distributors already offer the Powerwall to South African consumers. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media