It’s been almost two years since Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s solar roof, and Bloomberg reports we’re going to have to wait a little longer for the product to go into volume production. The company is citing complexity for the delay, while they continue to refine the design and installation process. Now, Tesla plans to ramp up the production in the first half of 2019.
“That’s quite a long development cycle because anything that’s roof has got to last 30 years,” Musk said late Wednesday evening on Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call. “There’s a lot of engineering -- not just in the tile, but in the way it’s done.”
When the roof was unveiled in October 2016, a SolarCity executive said the shingles could eventually account for 5 percent of the 5 million roofs installed each year in the U.S. The following month Tesla completed its acquisition of SolarCity, then the biggest U.S. rooftop solar-panel installer.
But the roof may prove to be a niche product, and not just because of the lengthy development process. Another reason: cost.
Bloomberg NEF has estimated that a Tesla roof could cost about $57,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house, compared to about $41,000 for terracotta tiles and a 5-kilowatt solar system. A conventional asphalt roof with solar panels runs about $22,000.
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