Tesla’s new SA centre for batteries, cars
ELON Musk’s Tesla has set up the group’s first Australian battery and electric car service centre within the Tonsley innovation precinct.
ELON Musk’s Tesla has set up the group’s first Australian battery and electric cars service centre within the Tonsley innovation precinct.
The new centre has been operating for a few weeks, but an official opening is slated for next Thursday, September 13.
“The facility will help service our growing footprint in the state, including the Hornsdale battery system and other Powerwall systems we have there, including one recently installed at the TAFE facility at Tonsley,” said Heath Walker, senior manager, marketing and communications at Tesla.
The centre will also service locally-owned electric cars. Internode founder Simon Hackett has a few Tesla vehicles.
Mr Walker did not say how many jobs had been created to add to the existing Australian workforce of 300, but said the facility “and jobs will grow as the company grows”.
Tesla’s home in the southwest corner of the Main Assembly Building takes up part of what was initially meant to be former precinct’s cornerstone tenant Tier 5’s home.
Tier 5, a data centre and associated services company founded by IT entrepreneur Marty Gauvin, who also set up Hostworks, went into administration in 2015.
Tesla’s presence at Tonsley comes as the Federal and state governments last month announced they will invest $10 million in the state’s second large-scale Tesla “big battery’’.
The 52 megawatt hour (MWh) battery will be connected to the existing Lake Bonney Wind Farm near Millicent in the state’s southeast and inject electricity into the grid at times of peak demand.
ASX-listed Infigen has teamed up with Tesla for the $38 million project.
Tesla installed Australia’s first big battery - and currently the world’s largest at 100MWh — at Jamestown, next to the Hornsdale wind farm run by French company Neoen in record time in 2017.
The project which took 63 days cost about $33 million — and came after a Twitter challenge between tech billionaires Musk and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Mr Musk promised to “get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free”.
The social media exchange in March 2017 followed South Australia’s statewide blackout on September 28, 2016, which had highlighted Australia’s national energy crisis following the closure of major coal-fired power plants and growing investment in variable renewable energy.
In July this year, Tesla completed the installation of residential-scale batteries at 100 Housing SA homes, which have been equipped with solar panels as part of the first phase of a State Government-backed 250 MW virtual power plant.
A further 1000 public housing properties will receive the same equipment over the next year to deliver the second phase of the plan, funded through a $30 million state government loan. The 250MW virtual power plant was promised by the former Labor government and adopted by the Liberals in government.
Mr Musk, a 22 per cent shareholder in Tesla and its public face, has faced “an excruciating year”, he said in August. It followed an attempted Tesla boardroom coup, fears about the company’s finances, and the 47 year old businessman’s social media commentary (some unrelated to Tesla).
The Australian arm of the business continues to do well though. Tesla Motors Australia’s revenues tripled year-on-year to $160.7 million in 2017, with a six-fold profit of $1.36 million.