The pre-sale of the new Tesla solar roof suffered a slight delay (the original plan was to begin in April), but the expectation is so great that interested parties didn't even notice. The promises are several, but there are two that stand out above the rest. First, Tesla says that in an average home it will be cheaper to install a solar roof than a normal one, and as if that weren't enough, it offers a lifetime warranty for its tiles.
Low-cost electric cars, solar projects on remote islands, battery installations, giant factories... Tesla doesn't stop. We recently discussed its advance over Ford and GM in terms of market value, and despite still having to deliver the Model 3, Elon Musk's monster hasn't run out of breath. What's next? None other than the solar roof, officially presented to the public in October of last year, alongside version 2 of the Powerwall module. Even then Musk had suggested that installation costs would be lower than a conventional roof, and with the opening of pre-orders, we have more solid numbers.
The cost breakdown
The final cost will depend on the design of each house and local incentives/subsidies, but Tesla assigns an average of $24.5 per square foot of traditional roof ($263.71 per m2) versus $21.85 for the solar roof ($235.19 per m2). In its calculations it includes materials, a Powerwall 2 module, installation, and removal of the previous roof, but not extraordinary expenses (taxes, permits, structural updates, etc.). Interestingly, the roof is not fully equipped with solar cells. In fact, those $21.85 come from 35 percent coverage, although in most cases Musk believes it will be 40 percent.
Basically, Tesla's idea is that if we include federal credits and the price of the energy generated, users will make money by changing their roofs over a 30-year period. That brings us to the warranty: Tesla offers what it calls an 'infinite warranty' for its tiles, equivalent to the lifetime of the house. Of course, all this theory applies exclusively to the US market. Customers in that country will be the first to receive the roofs (available in polished or textured designs), while the rest of the world will have to wait until 2018 and do their own calculations.
