Tesla Solar Roofing | What Happened?

We all have seen it in the news: hype over Elon Musk newest business. Wether it is release of new Tesla Car, Truck, Launch of new rocket at SpaceX it always gets a lot of media attention!

2 years ago on October 28th, 2016 The whole roofing world and Roofing Insights paid close attention to Elon Musk press conference and big statements that Tesla solar roof will be cheaper than regular roof.

So where are they today? Few reports came in, few roofs have been installed and we looked into details, listened to testimonials and happy to share our fundings.

Let me start with saying: “we are not there yet”.

Don’t want to be negative in any way, shape or form but Elon and Tesla Solar has not delivered any of its promises yet.

First clients are already making statements that they have invested in Tesla Solar roofs not because of savings or because it will be cheaper compared to other options own a long run but because they wanted to do it for their own reasons (reasons very from desire to be green and investing in something sustainable and simply willing to be a guinea pig of new experiment).

One thing is clear: No one is saving money.

I went to Tesla website https://www.tesla.com/solarroof and got quote for my house. Onlin e quote for my house in Champlin MN is $80,000. Claimed value of energy for the next 30 years is $62,600. So according to Tesla Net cost is only $9,600. (SCREEN SHOT HERE).

For the price of one Tesla roof I can get 5 asphalt shingle roofs for my house.

Its all not so bad if you close eyes wide open on few facts:

1. Tesla can’t really deliver for years even its pilot installs. Only few roofs in California has been installed and they are very easy roofs, no complex, easy to walk on, and even those roofs took team of 15-20 for few weeks to install. For comparison most conventional asphalt roofs installs in a day or two even with complex projects (high pitch, 2-3 stories buildings, cut up gables etc). We believe labor cost be Teslas biggest killer in this space: roofing trade is very expensive and dangerous and its very expensive to have that many employees on one single project for weeks.
2. 30 years of “Investment” in Tesla roof is just hard to justify. While Tesla quoted my roof at $80k, even according to their website regular roof would cost me only $15k. That leaves me with $65,000 savings I could invest. What if I invest it in stocks, business or somewhere else besides Tesla roof? What would be return of investment for $65,000 over 30 years? I spoke with my financial advisor and he told me I would get anywhere from 5X to 10X better return by investing even in conservative accounts. He also said I would be better off investing $65k in Tesla stock instead of buying Tesla roof.

Conclusion.

“We are not there yet”.

While we love the concept and wish @ElonMusk prosperous future with all his companies we think that Tesla Solar roofs are over advertised, over promised and in our opinion word “over priced” is appropriate to use.

We do love the concept, the look, the idea, but we have to be honest with ourselves about results and honest comparison.

Today we are not there yet. in 30 years you can replace your roof 5 times for the price of one Tesla roof. True saving numbers are not there yet. If you want to buy it, buy it for the looks, buy it to save our planet, buy it to be cool, but don’t buy it to save money, because most likely you won’t. At least not yet.

Thats my honest review of Tesla Tile Solar Cost expectations.

Let me know what you think in comments below.