Expanded customer beta installs, vertical stand testing, DERvos reflections, CES awards, and of course, a shipping update.

🏠 Expanded Beta Testing

We continue to roll out early beta systems in the SF Bay Area, focusing on the entire end-to-end experience of receiving, unboxing, and setting up Pila using the intuitive touchscreen and Pila App.

Watching real people unbox Pila, plug in, and power up their spaces has been incredibly rewarding. But more than that, it's been educational. Every beta install has taught us something new about how people actually want to use Pila in their daily lives.

Based on early feedback, we've already made updates to streamline the onboarding flow and setup experience. Some changes were small UI tweaks. Others were bigger shifts in how we guide users through their first interaction with the system. The goal? Make it so intuitive that setup feels invisible – just plug in, tap a few buttons, and you're protected.

Borrowing learnings from launching home products at Tesla and SPAN, this iterative process with real users is exactly what matters before broader shipments commence. Grateful to our beta customers for their patience and honest feedback!

⚖️ Putting Pila to the Test

Behind the scenes, our engineering team has been putting the Pila Vertical Stand through its paces. We're talking extreme conditions – testing stability under maximum load, simulating years of daily use, and making sure it performs flawlessly whether you're in a studio apartment or a multi-story home.

The stand needs to be rock-solid. It's the foundation that keeps Pila secure and accessible, and we're not cutting corners on QA. The results so far? Everything is holding up beautifully under stress testing.

We continue to test device software, and recently underwent rigorous testing to ensure Pila is FCC compliant under all operating conditions. Pila passed with flying colors!

🏆 CES 2026 Innovation Award Honoree

Some exciting news to share: Pila has been named a CES 2026 Innovation Award Honoree in the 🏡 Smart Home and ⚡ Sustainability & Energy Transition categories.

We're humbled to be recognized alongside some incredible companies pushing the boundaries of technology. This award validates what we've believed from day one – accessible, intelligent home energy storage isn't just needed, it's inevitable.

A huge thank you to our team for the countless hours of work that made this possible. And to everyone who's followed our journey and shared your support – this recognition belongs to all of us.

👋 If you’re attending CES in January, be sure to stop by the Pila booth to meet the team and see Pila in action!

*The future of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)*

🗽 DERvos Reflections

Two weeks ago in NYC, Pila joined DERvos, the premier annual event for Distributed Energy. It was a milestone moment with strong connections, tremendous feedback, and clear validation that Pila is defining a new product category. Across conversations, one theme stood out: there’s growing urgency to streamline how batteries are deployed at every point on the grid.

Thursday kicked off with an invite-only Leadership Day, bringing together 60 leaders from across the U.S. energy sector to discuss the state of DERs, VPPs, and the growing opportunity for distributed resources to meet unprecedented load growth.

Friday drew hundreds of attendees to Governors Island – our first official East Coast expo. Great to see some of you there. We had live Pila systems running on-site for people to experience firsthand.

On stage, we joined the panel “Plug-in DERs Don’t Need Your Permission,” discussing how frictionless, permissionless deployment is reshaping the grid from the bottom up.

During a live showcase for the full audience, we demonstrated how simple setup really is: just plug it in. The reaction spoke volumes – people were genuinely surprised by how much power and intelligence fit inside such a compact form.

My synopsis: We’re entering the age of the “Electrostate” – where national strength and community resilience are defined by the energy we can build, store, and control. With electricity demand surging, we can’t wait on decades-long infrastructure timelines. The moment for distributed energy is now. Permissionless DERs (like Pila) give us the speed and scale to unleash millions of assets, and VPPs are already proving that those assets can deliver real, reliable capacity. The task ahead is clear: deploy fast, connect everything, and let distributed energy show what it can do at scale.

🎥 Pila is a Standout at Google for Startups AI & Energy Demo Day

📦 Shipping Update: On Track for Early 2026

Let's talk about what matters most… getting Pila to you!

Delivering your Pila system remains our absolute top priority. We're on track for broader customer shipments in early 2026. The beta program is helping us fine-tune the final details, and our manufacturing partners are ramping up production as we speak.

We know many of you have been waiting patiently since placing your pre-orders at SXSW. Your support means everything to us, and we're working hard to make sure Pila exceeds your expectations when it arrives.

On behalf of the whole team, thank you and we can’t wait to share Pila with you!

Some other notable milestones:

Pila was recently featured in Canary Media, highlighting the unique value Pila brings to homeowners, and renters, looking for peace of mind and energy independence, check it out here
We’re thrilled to be an honoree for Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech for 2025!
The team is building out and testing the Home Assistant Integration to ensure it’s available at launch. This integration adds even more control and ease to using your Pila battery

The team is full steam ahead on getting your Pila battery to your home. As always, thank you for your continued support as we build a sustainable energy future together!

Cole Ashman,
CEO & Founder

Some articles the Pila team is reading at the moment: