On Friday, Elon Musk revealed some information about the solar roof, which Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) unveiled last year.
Musk said on Twitter that Tesla will start accepting orders for its solar roof tiles in April. The tiles will be available in four shingle styles: terra cotta, slate, textured glass, and smooth glass.
Tesla is looking to begin the installation of the solar roof later this year.
Tesla unveiled the solar roof last October, about a month before it acquired SolarCity for around $2.1 billion.
Musk has said that a roof built with Tesla’s solar tiles will be cheaper than a normal roof. “It’s looking quite promising that a solar roof will actually cost less than a normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account,” he said in November during a conference call.
However, we do not yet about the price of the Tesla’s solar tiles.
SunPower CEO Skeptical About Tesla’s Solar Roof
Tom Werner, the CEO of SunPower, said that he is “skeptical” Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) can offer an affordable a solar roof at a low price point.
According to a report from Business Insider, Werner thinks that it is unlikely that Tesla’s solar roof will be affordable.
“I’m frankly a little skeptical, but I’ve learned in 14 years not to discount entirely,” Werner told the publication.
SunPower offered a solar roof option 10 years ago and the company found it too expensive for the amount of energy it produced, according to Werner.
“You take the same material and you have less energy production because it’s a little shingle,” Werner said. “And then also, because they’re part of the roof, they get hot. So you have to pay to keep them cool.”
“It’s a trade-off of looks cool versus costs more,” Werner added. “We found our customers said it doesn’t look cool enough to offset.”
On Friday, shares of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) were trading up 3.29% in the after-hours session. Year-to-date, the stock is up 23.15%, while shares have gained 15.55% during the last 12 months.