Tesla appears to have drastically increased the price of its Solar Roof tiles in an update to its configurator and quote estimates.
After years of delays, the Tesla Solar Roof is finally gaining momentum with a sharp rise in installations over the last few quarters.
The increased deployment came after Tesla launched version 3 of its Solar Roof tiles, which brought a significant price decrease through optimization and faster installation process.
Tesla kept refining the product and changed its online cost estimates a few times, decreasing the price again last summer.
But now Tesla appears to have changed course and significantly increased the price of its solar roof in its online configurator.
Several Electrek readers and prospective solar roof buyers reached out this weekend to let us know that they are seeing higher prices for the same quotes.
We decided to check it ourselves with a previous quote that we have used as a reference.
Last summer, a quote for a 3,947-square-foot roof with a 12,3 kW solar roof tile system was $54,966 before incentives.
Now the Tesla Solar Roof configurator shows prices between $79,938 and $100,621 for the same size roof:
While this is a sharp increase in price, Tesla also appears to try to make its online quotes more accurate with a new “roof complexity” factor:
Roof complexity is determined by the pitch, number of joints, chimneys, and other features on your roof. Complex roofs take more time and material to install than simple roofs, which increases the total system cost. Once you place an order, our design team will use remote imagery to confirm your roof complexity and system fit.
However, in this case, the least to the most complex options all result in higher prices than previously quoted for the same address with the same square footage.
Tesla solar roof customers have previously noted some significant differences between prices quoted online and after Tesla had a more intensive look at the projects, which all vary in complexity due to many factors.
The company has been guiding a significant increase in solar roof installations this year as they hire more roofers and start selling the solar roof through more third-party roofing companies.
If you previously built a Tesla Solar Roof quote for your own house using the online configurator, you can try again to see if the price has changed and let us know in the comment section below.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
