Tesla – the innovative electric car company – surprised everyone last week when it quietly introduced a smartphone accessory. Announced alongside the new all-electric Semi truck and the Tesla Roadster, the Tesla PowerBank is a stylish-looking battery pack meant to ensure your handset never runs out of battery. At least in theory.
The PoweBank uses a 18650 lithium-ion cell – the same type of cell used to power the company’s Model S and Model X’s battery packs – so it’s quite an interesting little product. But in practical terms, the portable charger boasts 3,350 mAh capacity which should be enough to provide one extra charge to your Android phone. Moreover, the accessory outputs at a maximum rate of 5V/1.5A and only includes USB, microUSB and Apple Lightning charging cables, but no USB Type-C.
But the Tesla PowerBank does impress with its stylish design that appears to have been inspired by the company’s supercharger obelisk at the Tesla Design Studio in California.
It cost $45 a pop and even though, for this amount of money you can surely find a better alternative (here are some if you want to take a look), Tesla die-hard fans will probably be compelled to click on the Buy button.
Tesla also unveiled a less portable option for charging your phone. The accessory it’s called the Desktop Supercharger and according to Tesla, the company used the actual 3D CAD data used to make the actual Supercharger (for cars) to make this (much smaller) replica. The device will set you back with $45 and will charge your phone via any of your USB cables.