1/ Austin Flack of YouTube was one of the first to receive a V3 Tesla solar roof. You can find his two videos (buying it, and a one-year review) at these links:





$TSLAQ

2/ Mr. Flack personally paid $33,749 *after incentives* to have the Tesla solar roof installed. To be fair, he needed a new roof anyway, which likely would have cost him ~$10K according to his estimates.

$TSLAQ

3/ In his first full year, the Tesla Solar roof generated estimated power bill savings of a little over $2k. His savings were impacted by the wildfires. He needed to have his roof cleaned and didn’t do it in a timely manner. The cost of that cleaning was not specified. $TSLAQ

4/ At the price *he paid* the gross payback period is roughly 16 years. The payback period subtracting the cost of a new roof is roughly 11 years. This assumes the panels won’t degrade, etc. $TSLAQ

5/ If Tesla is jacking up the price of whatever version of the solar roof they are currently peddling by 50%, the payback periods will stretch beyond even these elongated (see what I did there?) levels. $TSLAQ

6/ Most people don’t currently need a new roof. Ergo, the gross payback period at the full price is the appropriate economic consideration. Mix in taxpayer subsidies and the fact that Tesla is almost certainly losing money on these projects, it’s just another Elon money furnace.