Pila Energy emerges to offer residential batteries, but sexy

At CES 2026, a new startup that was introduced to ESS News was Pila Energy, a home battery maker that’s hoping to add some ‘Apple Watch’-like cool and sleek design and technical function to the sector.

Pila Energy offers a long and flat battery style, that can be housed in the home in either a horizontal or upright stance. Using a lithium iron phosphate or LFP chemistry, each battery is 20.4 kg and stands 38 cm by 67.5 cm by 8.5cm. They’re still heavy, and even a new starti[

The unit houses a 1.6kWh battery, with the front housing a display, three USB-C ports, and an AC inverter with four 120 V outlets (two at the front, two at the back) for max 2400 W of continuous output, plus 7800 W peak for 500 ms, and a 20ms cutover time for UPS-like continuous power. It comes with 5 year warranty, 10-year battery life, and 30-day returns.

Cole Ashman, a former engineer who worked at Tesla and collaborated on Tesla’s Powerwall, told ESS News he founded Pila Energy to make energy resilience more attractive and accessible. And while the $1299 pricetag for a Pila Energy battery isn’t exactly cheap, Ashman further explained that Pila suits a less thought about consumer, in renters.

“Pila Energy can suit renters and people who can’t get permits for whole-home installations. Our batteries work with whatever appliances you have in the house, it plugs into any outlet, and it moves with you if you move, and we’ve built them to look good so that you’ll be happy to have them on display. We really think this is more like the Apple Watch era of home batteries,” said Ashman.

The batteries also function as a smart system: like a mesh Wi-Fi system, multiple batteries can form a network to act in orchestra for home storage coordinatoin, able to store solar or utility power when used with dynamic electricity pricing setups. It’s similar to EcoFlow’s slightly broader scale Stream series of batteries that offer plug-and-play for the home, while enabling battery coordination, which is widely available in Europe, but only available in some areas of the US such as Utah.

Pila also says it’s also part of a smart home as it’s Matter-capable, and works with Home Assistant (MQTT), Amazon Alexa, and Google Home.

Pila’s home batteries are now available to preorder in the US for $1299 each, with deliveries expected to begin in February 2026. Expansion batteries are set for later delivery, and will handle solar input with two MPPTs for up to 1200W, and will be priced at $1199.