Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Senior Key Executive Andrew Baglino confirmed during the company’s Q4 2021 earnings call on Wednesday that we could eventually see a heat pump solution from Tesla for residential HVAC systems, heating, and hot water.
When asked if and how Tesla’s advancements in automotive HVAC and heat pump technology could be extrapolated to the context of domestic cooling and heating, Baglino said:
I think from a mission perspective, it’s very aligned. If you imagine replacing natural gas, water and space heaters with electric heat pumps, it offsets something equivalent to like 80% of what a solar plus Powerwall system would offset, so it’s very impactful. And we have learned a lot about how to make capable and reliable heat pumps that work in all environmental conditions and are excited about the idea of working on that problem one day.
“It’s definitely aligned with our mission to transition to sustainable — accelerate the transition to sustainable energy,” Baglino said about the endeavor.
Musk added that a residential system that integrates “electric vehicles charging, solar, energy storage, hot water, HVAC” into a tight, compact package that also looks good would be “quite a compelling solution to the consumer.”
Tesla’s residential solar and Powerwall offerings are well integrated and already a big success. “The next logical step is obviously HVAC and water and heating,” said Baglino. “So we will do that and we will integrate it probably better than anyone has. But […] we have a lot of stuff on our plate.”
Even though Baglino noted that the integration of those systems in a house would be no different than the integration of those systems in a vehicle, the two execs did not say when Tesla plans to come out with such an offering.
“I think it would be just quite a game-changer down the road,” said Musk. “And so, it is a thing we will do but we’re not committing to a time frame at this point.”
Musk also encouraged others to take up the opportunity to create such a product and beat Tesla to the punch, if they can.
Tesla on Wednesday reported $17.71 billion USD in revenue and $2.32 billion USD in net income for Q4 2021, with deliveries for the full year increasing 87% year-over-year to 936,000 EVs.
