Huawei slashes prices of load-shedding backup systems

Huawei South Africa has slashed the prices of its all-in-one Power-M inverter-and-battery backup systems by as much as R26,000.

The price cuts were announced during the company’s South African P60 Pro launch event in Kyalami on Thursday, 18 May 2023.

The price of the entry-level system with a 5kW inverter and 5kWh of battery storage has been reduced from R78,999 to R69,999 — a drop of roughly 11%.

The same inverter with 10kWh of battery storage would previously cost R127,499 but will now set you back R109,999, a slightly bigger reduction of 14%.

The largest discount is on the top-end option with 15kWh of storage.

This system was previously priced at R175,999, but will now cost R149,999, a drop of 15%.

Front of fully-stacked Huawei Power-M with 5kW power module and three 5kWh batteries (left) and the back of another model with 5kW power module and 5kWh battery storage (right).

The latter’s specifications are the closest to the Tesla Powerwall 2, which combines a 5kW inverter and 14kWh battery storage.

The Power-M is similar to the Powerwall in that it combines a sleek and modular design with environmental protection for placement indoors or outdoors.

It supports both on-grid and off-grid applications and can be integrated with solar and generator backup systems.

Like the Powerwall, it is also stackable, allowing multiple Power-M systems to be configured in parallel to support up to 15kW output and 45kWh of battery storage.

Cheaper than the Powerwall

With the latest price reductions, the Power-M has become cheaper than the Powerwall.

The last-available official pricing for the Powerwall and its supporting hardware in South Africa was R170,300.

However, the rand has significantly weakened against the dollar since then, so its price has likely shot up substantially.

When the pricing was last recorded on Tesla’s website — in July 2022 — the rand was trading at about R16-R17 to the dollar.

The local currency has surged beyond R19 to the dollar in the past few weeks.

At the time of publication, Futurama was selling the Powerwall 2 in South Africa for R225,299.

First Energy was charging a much cheaper R167,049. However, it did not have stock of the product.

It should be noted that the Powerwall does offer a higher peak inverter output of 8kW and a better environmental protection rating.

In addition, the Power-M’s 10-year warranty only applies up to 6,000 cycles at a 25℃ operating temperature and with an 80% depth-of-discharge.

Tesla offers a 10-year warranty on the Powerwall with unlimited cycles and guarantees capacity retention of at least 70% after this period.

The table below compares the specifications of the top-end Huawei Power-M system and the Tesla Powerwall 2.

Huawei will soon make the Power-M available through its South African online store after previously only offering it via approved retailers and installers.

For businesses, Huawei has also introduced the larger Power-S modular case system with indoor and outdoor options available.

These modular systems can be rigged with inverters ranging from 30kW to 72kW of output capacity and between 5kWh and 600kWh of battery storage.

In addition to the inverter and battery, the Power-S supports solar MPPT and rectifier modules and built-in hybrid monitoring and Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity.

Huawei said the simple design of the Power-S allows for installation in just one day.

Now read: Eskom’s load-shedding winter is coming — best appliances to keep warm without power

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

Huawei slashes prices of load-shedding backup systems