Mercedes-Benz and Vivint Solar Close in on Tesla's Home Battery Market

Mercedes-Benz encroaches on Tesla territory with a home solar panel and battery setup. Back in January, Mercedes-Benz announced it was partnering with Vivint Solar during a press conference at CES and now, that partnership is yielding a product for the United States market, Mercedes announced in a press release Thursday. 

Very similar to Elon Musk's home solar panel and battery system, Vivint Solar and Mercedes-Benz has taken technology from the Mercedes-Benz electric fleet and transferred it into a home application. Using automotive grade batteries, Mercedes-Benz has made an customizable solar energy storage system using a network of 2.5 kWh batteries with a maximum of a 20 kWh system. 

The advantage of having a customizable and large system is it allows households to store solar energy for peak consumption times or for when suboptimal weather is around. Having a cohesive energy absorption and retention system was brought about by Elon Musk when he partnered with SolarCity, but now Mercedes is making a large play on the market in California, Musk's home turf. Customers will be able to purchase and finance the system through Vivint Solar starting in Q2.