With 38,000 battery buyers in 1 week, Tesla may need bigger Giga

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., unveils the company's new product called "Powerwall" in Hawthorne, Calif., Thursday, April. 30, 2015. Musk is trying to steer his electric car company's battery technology into homes and businesses as part of an elaborate plan to reshape the power grid with millions of small power plants made of solar panels on roofs and batteries in garages. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) less Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., unveils the company's new product called "Powerwall" in Hawthorne, Calif., Thursday, April. 30, 2015. Musk is trying to steer his electric car company's battery technology ... more Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close With 38,000 battery buyers in 1 week, Tesla may need bigger Giga 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

So many people have ordered Tesla Motors’ new home-based battery packs — unveiled by the electric automaker just last week — that the company may need to expand its $5 billion battery factory now under construction in Nevada, CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday.

Tesla has received 38,000 reservations for the new Powerwall home battery, Musk said, with some people ordering more than one. The battery, the smallest version of which sells for $3,000, is designed to help homeowners with solar arrays store energy from their panels for use at night.

In addition, Musk said 2,500 businesses have placed online reservations for Tesla’s new Powerpack batteries, capable of storing far more energy than the Powerwall. And most of those businesses ordered multiple Powerpacks.

“There’s no way we could possibly satisfy this demand this year — we’re sold out for the first half of next year,” Musk said, during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “It’s crazy, off the hook. It seems to have gone super viral.”

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Demand for the batteries is so strong that Tesla may need to expand its Gigafactory taking shape outside Reno, Nevada — although Musk emphasized that hasn’t been decided. Already planned to be larger than any battery factory in the world, the Gigafactory was designed primarily to build batteries for Tesla’s electric cars, using its massive scale to slash costs. But the company’s new energy storage business — dubbed Tesla Energy — may alter plans for the plant.

“We could easily have the entire Gigafactory just do energy storage,” Musk said Wednesday. “We need to make cars too, so maybe we should make the factory bigger.”

Musk is counting on the Gigafactory to cut battery costs enough to introduce a $35,000 electric car, the Model 3, in 2017. He emphasized Wednesday that Tesla’s cars would still have first dibs on the company’s batteries. Tesla plans to deliver 55,000 cars this year.

Musk made his comments while discussing the company’s first-quarter financial results. Tesla, based in Palo Alto, recorded a $154.2 million loss for the quarter on $939.9 million of revenue.

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF