Tesla is creating a battery pack to power our homes

No one can accuse Tesla CEO Elon Musk of failing to dream big, and now his next venture will see the electric car company produce a battery to power our homes.

Tesla considers itself as much a battery production company as it does a car maker, and this point was clarified by Musk this week who, after the company posted a loss for the fourth quarter of 2014, said design of the home battery is complete and production could begin in six months.

Although vague for now, the battery pack could resemble the system used by the Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car which lets owners remove the battery and use it to power their house; when fully charged, Toyota claims the battery can power an average home for a week.

Alternatively, Tesla could follow the Nissan Leaf, an all-electric car which can be used as a temporary generator to power a home in an emergency.

On an earnings call last year, Musk announced his plans to power consumers' homes, not just their cars. "We are trying to figure out what would be a cool stationary [battery] pack. Some will be like the Model S pack: something flat five inches off the wall, wall mounted, with a beautiful cover, an integrated bi-directional inverter, and plug and play."

During that same call, Tesla's chief technical officer, JB Straubel, said long-term demand for stationary energy storage is "extraordinary," adding: "We've done a huge amount of effort there and have talked to major utilities and energy service companies."

It seems that Tesla is getting closer to revealing its plans for a greener, all-electric future in our homes as well as on the roads, and down the line its electric car business could merely be a branch of something much larger.

The company is still deciding on an exact date to release the home battery pack, but for now Musk describes it as "really great."