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Two Powerwalls for $35 a month: Tesla bundles a home battery lease with its Texas power plan4 min

Two Powerwalls for $35 a month: Tesla bundles a home battery lease with its Texas power plan

Energy ·

Tesla Electric now offers Texans a lease on two Powerwalls with no installation cost, at about $35 a month after a bill credit, if they sign up for its Backup electricity plan. Here is how the deal works and what the catches are.

Tesla has found a new way to sell home batteries in Texas: rent them out together with electricity. Through Tesla Electric, its retail power company in the state, homeowners can now lease two Powerwalls with no installation cost and pay an effective $35 a month, as long as they buy their electricity from Tesla on a new Backup plan. Latitude Media and Solar Power World reported the launch on August 13, and Latitude says it is the first time Tesla has bundled a Powerwall lease with its own retail power offer.

How the numbers add up

  • Hardware: two Powerwalls, about 27 kWh of storage in total, installed by Tesla.
  • Upfront: a one-time $100 order fee. Standard installation is included.
  • Lease: $122 a month in the first year, rising 3% each year.
  • Credit: $87 a month off the lease invoice while the customer stays on the Tesla Electric Backup plan, which brings the first year to about $35 plus tax.
  • Electricity: the Backup plan charges 8.0 cents per kWh for energy in every listed utility area, plus the local utility's delivery charges. Power sent back to the grid is credited at roughly 13.6 to 15.4 cents per kWh, depending on the area.
  • Length: Latitude Media reports a 12-year lease. Tesla's own support page does not state a term.

Tesla told Latitude the deal works out 74% below the standard Powerwall list price over the life of the lease.

Who can sign up

The offer is narrow on purpose. It is only available in parts of Texas with retail electricity choice, where households can pick their own supplier. The home must not have solar panels or a Solar Roof: this is a battery-only package aimed at backup. Customers sign the lease in their Tesla account, the batteries are installed, the utility gives permission to operate, and then the customer enrols in the Backup plan. The credit appears on lease invoices within two billing cycles after that.

Customers must keep both the electricity account and the lease payments up to date. If they leave the Backup plan, the $87 credit stops and the full lease price applies.

What Tesla gets out of it

The credit is not a gift. Tesla Electric will control the batteries, charging them when power is cheap and selling energy back when Texas prices spike. In effect, the two Powerwalls become part of Tesla's virtual power plant, and the trading income helps pay for the discount.

Tesla says it will always keep at least 20% of the stored energy for the household. During an outage, the home can use everything in the batteries. Storm Watch is included, so the batteries fill up ahead of severe weather. The lease can be transferred to a new owner or bought out when the house is sold.

Why it matters

Home batteries have always had a price problem. A pair of Powerwalls is a big purchase, and in 2026 US buyers who pay cash or take a loan no longer get the 30% federal residential clean energy credit, which ended with 2025. Leasing shifts the upfront cost to Tesla, and the grid revenue lowers the monthly bill.

Texas suits this model well. Its grid is separate from the rest of the US, prices can swing wildly during heat waves and winter storms, and the open retail market lets Tesla act as both supplier and battery operator. Tesla is not alone: Palmetto launched a battery-only lease earlier this year.

Tesla's virtual power plant lead Kevin Joyce told Latitude that today's installed base is not "indicative of what's possible in the future." Tesla has installed more than a million Powerwalls worldwide, and about a quarter were enrolled in virtual power plants as of last spring.

What to watch for next

  • Renewal pricing: the Backup plan rate is not fixed for the full lease. Tesla says it will offer a renewal rate before the plan expires, and the credit only continues if customers renew.
  • Uptake: whether the offer brings in many new Powerwall homes, which would make Tesla's Texas battery fleet more valuable during price spikes.
  • Other markets: whether Tesla copies the bundle elsewhere, for example in Britain, where it now holds an electricity supply licence.
Sources (4)

Images are illustrations; some are made with AI.

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