Elon Musk says that Tesla’s next ‘killer product’ is its Solar Roof and that it will become “obvious” next year.
It looks like Tesla is getting ready for it by hiring an army of roofers.
During a conference call following Tesla’s Q3 2020 earnings results this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk hyped up the solar roof tiles.
The CEO said that it will become a clear ‘killer product’ next year:
“When you look around the neighborhood in the future, decade from now, what do you want? What products are going to make your life better? What future do you want? And I think a future where we’ve got beautiful roofs generating energy that are tough and resilient and better in every way than a regular roof and alive with energy, that’s the future we want. Solar Roof is a killer product. This will become obvious next year.”
We recently reported on Tesla running into some issues with the deployment of the solar roof tiles.
There are still some difficulties, but Tesla says that it is turning a corner with accelerated deployment:
“Total solar deployments more than doubled in Q3 to 57 MW compared to the prior quarter, with Solar Roof deployments almost tripling sequentially.”
To Musk’s point that the significance of the product is only going to be fully recognized next year, Tesla appears to be accelerating hiring to expand the solar roof tile deployment capacity.
Electrek has found over 200 open roofer positions around the US and Tesla even appears to prepare to expand solar roof installations in Canada – starting in Ontario.
Recently, Tesla changed the types of underlay it uses with its solar roof tiles and also reduced the price of the product.
Electrek’s Take
The product is attractive and it does offer a solution to a problem – namely deploying rooftop solar power if you need a new roof.
The combination of solar power and a new roof does offer a competitive financial advantage. It’s not true for all types of roof at this point, but like most new technologies, it is competitive starting with higher-end products.
With the kind of hiring that Tesla is doing right now combined with the fact that Tesla is approving other third-party roofing companies to install the tiles, I can see why Elon says that it will be an obvious killer product next year.
They need to make sure that they fix the installation problems that they are running into right now, but I think those are mostly due to them not having done enough test installations before moving to customers homes and therefore, installers are running into issues they haven’t seen before.
Once that is fixed and Tesla has several hundred more installers next year, I can see Tesla deploying over 100 MW of solar roof tiles per quarter during the second half of 2021.
Tesla Solar and energy storage products might be a great solution for your home or business, and you can use our code (frederic5610) for a $100 award on your solar roof or Tesla solar panel installation after activation of the system.
However, we suggest getting quotes from more than one installer to make sure you get the best energy solution for your place. UnderstandSolar is a great free service to link you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates for free. Tesla also offers price matching for solar panels now, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes.
You can check out our Tesla solar roof and solar panel guide for more details.
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