Tesla Solar Roof, courtesy of Tesla
Many Tesla Solar Roof customers currently awaiting delivery or in purchase discussions with the company have taken to Reddit after they received emails from Tesla offering them one additional Tesla Powerwall battery for their setup at no additional cost.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed earlier this week that the Solar Roof and Solar Panels would no longer be standalone products, and instead would be sold as integrated offerings along with the company’s Powerwall batteries.
Image: User “u/chentufio” on Reddit
Tesla has offered a free Powerwall to a wide selection of its customers-in-waiting, even going as far as to draw up new installation plans and agreements for customers with orders from as far back as November 2020, who have already signed agreements and even procured all the necessary permits from their local government (which they would now have to do again if they accept Tesla’s offer).
By late March when Tesla launched version 3 of its Solar Roof, the cost of having a Solar Roof installed went up by up to 45%, and Tesla started accounting for ‘roof complexity’ when providing quotes.
Even customers who already had signed purchase agreements with Tesla for its Solar Roofs were affected by the price hike, with some seeing increments of up to $36,000 USD in their sticker price.
Unfortunately for customers who had their Solar Roof plans drawn up with exactly the number of Powerwalls they need (or more, in an attempt to future-proof their configuration), being offered one additional Powerwall doesn’t really salve their wounds.
The cost of one Tesla Powerwall being knocked off their bill, however? That’s a different story altogether and actually would be a step in the right direction, but there have been no reports of customers being able to strike that bargain with the Tesla team just yet.
