Tesla’s various solar roof products will become available for order for the first time starting in April, CEO Elon Musk revealed in a tweet yesterday.
As far as when deliveries and installations begin, that hasn’t been revealed yet, but presumably sometime by the middle or so of the year — or that’s my guess anyway. Reports are that volume production is expected to be achieved sometime this year. Notably, costs have yet to be revealed.
Rather than go into too much depth discussing the company’s solar roof tiles themselves, I’ll simply note here that they are pretty impressive looking. Check out our earlier coverage for more details:
Elon: Tesla Solar Roof = Cheaper Than Normal Roof (#Disruption)
Tesla & SolarCity Prepare For World Domination
Tesla Model S Gets Glass Roof, Probably Solar Glass Roof Too
Tech Crunch provides more thought on the matter: “These are a key step in Tesla’s combined vision for its solar energy generation and storage business, along with its electric vehicle operations. The solar tiles are aimed at popularizing the tech, by turning it from something that appeals to hardcore techies and green energy enthusiasts, to a practical option for everyday homeowners just looking to either save money, increase the resale value of their homes, or just take more direct control over their energy needs.”
That bit about increasing the resale value of a home probably isn’t true all of the time, it should be noted, as some homebuyers are actually ideologically opposed to solar panels (as far as I can tell) and not willing to purchase a house with them installed. You may not believe me about this, but it is, ridiculous or not, actually true of some people — as explained to me by a real estate agent I talked to recently. Maybe Tesla’s relatively discreet solar roof tiles wouldn’t be as much of an issue? That’s one of the ideas behind these. But who knows — as noted, it’s sometimes a matter of ideology rather than aesthetics.
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