Strong demand for electric cars from both Tesla and other manufacturers has pushed up manufacturer costs for lithium ion batteries.
There is very strong demand for energy storage products. Homeowners in Hawaii and California are buying heavily, while broadly, residential solar customers show a very high level of interest in the product.
There are also potential issues on the supply side. Tesla has stated explicitly that selling electric cars is more important to them than energy storage, and that it would shut down Powerwall battery cell lines to make then Model 3 battery cell lines.
With that, we now are seeing reports of Tesla and Sono Motors, a European company which hopes to launch an solar powered electric car soon, increasing the pricing on their products.
Per Electrek, the 13.5 kWh Powerwall II increased in price from $5,900, to $6,700, and supporting hardware increased from $700 to $1,100. The supporting hardware, in other sources, was noted as the Backup Gateway 2. This product was released in Australia first because market economics and policy there, much like Hawaii and California, mean energy storage is a financially sound investment.
Read more: PV Magazine USA