Tesla has updated their Solar Roof webpage and dropped prices for the product on the final day of the company’s third quarter.
The webpage redesign highlights a new durability comparison video of a Solar Roof tile compared to traditional roof tiles. While not the most scientific of tests, the Solar Roof tile survives the striking blow of a hammer while the other two tiles crack and shatter. The Solar Roof tile seems to have a little more flexibility when struck which could be beneficial for situations such as hail storms.
Tesla also outlines the installation process for prospective customers, from design to powering on the system. “Our in-house team of energy professionals has installed more than 3.6 GW of clean solar energy across 400,000 roofs—the equivalent of 10 million traditional solar panels. From roof removal to installation, we take care of everything,” writes Tesla.
As for the price reduction, Teslarati and Electrek compared updated pricing to previous prices that had been screen-captured. In Teslarati’s case, the post-incentive system price had been reduced from $33,950 to $31,133. Electrek saw a price drop from a pre-incentive price of $57,272 to $54,966. Converting Teslarati’s case to also be pre-incentive, the price reductions are 7% and 4%, respectively.
Pricing for the Solar Roof is variable depending on what percentage of roof tiles contain active solar materials relative to cheaper inactive tiles. Currently, the US federal inventive to solar system installation is 26% and drops to 22% at the end of the year.
For more on Tesla, including a follow up to a leaked Elon Musk email, please see the included video and be sure to follow Tesla Daily on The Street.
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Disclosure: Rob Maurer is long TSLA stock and derivatives.