Reuters's Salvador Rodriguez and Nichola Groom report that consumers awaiting Tesla’s hyped solar roofs will have to wait slightly longer than expected.
Tesla's CEO Elon Musk is reportedly stalling production over issues with the “aesthetic” quality of the roof panels. The solar roof panels, which Tesla began selling to customers last year, are coming off the line far slower than the company and its investors had hoped.
“Aesthetic look is the key point that Elon is always not satisfied with,” an unnamed former Tesla employee told Reuters. “That’s the big issue.”
In a call with Tesla investors last week, Musk said “hundreds” of homes already had solar roofs, but the company clarified the estimate in its statement to Reuters, saying it included systems that had been partially installed or were “being scheduled for install.”
In California, the nation’s leading solar market, there were twelve Tesla roof systems connected to the grid as of May 31, all in Northern California, according to records from the state’s three investor-owned utilities. The cost per watt for those systems was listed at nearly $6, according to the records. That’s about double the national average for solar systems.
Tesla began accepting $1,000 deposits from customers for the Solar Roofs in May 2017, seven months after it unveiled a prototype. Tesla confirmed in a statement to Reuters that it has been seeking to improve on its production process for the solar roof at the New York plant.