According to sources, Tesla is developing a new version of the solar roof (Solar Roof v3.5), which is currently being tested.
It is reported that Tesla has recently been focusing on the durability and ease of installation of solar roofs. If the tests go well, Tesla expects to roll out the new version of the solar roof when installations restart later this year.
Musk has always had great confidence in photovoltaics. When SolarRoof debuted in 2016, Musk put down his rhetoric, claiming that he would expand the rooftop photovoltaic business to China and Europe, and turn every house into a photovoltaic power station. Now, six years have passed, and the sales and actual installation of Tesla's solar roof is very poor.
According to the data, Tesla first launched the BIPV roof tile product Solar Roof in 2017, but it has not achieved large-scale application due to the high cost and installation difficulty.
The third-generation product, Solar Roof V3, launched in October 2019, has seen a 40% reduction in cost, and a significant increase in installation speed, power density, and conversion efficiency. Scale promotion conditions.
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's design vision, by the end of 2019, Tesla will produce 1,000 new solar roofs per week.
According to Electrek, Tesla deployed a 2.5 MW solar roof in the second quarter of 2022. That equates to about 260 mid-size (9.6 kW) solar roofs Tesla installed last quarter, or 20 per week. Even assuming only 5 kilowatts per solar roof, Tesla is only installing around 38 solar roofs per week, which is less than 4% of the target.
It is reported that the slow progress of Tesla's solar roof installation is related to the difficulty of roof installation. Musk previously tweeted that there is no standard process for installing solar roofs, and that he grossly underestimated the difficulty of installing some roofs. In fact, although BIPV technology is relatively mature, it will be difficult to achieve a standard process for design and construction due to the difference in the user's house structure. At the same time, due to the complex structure of Tesla's photovoltaic tile components, the installation cost will increase significantly compared with traditional components, and the cost will be passed on to the user and ultimately reduce the user's power generation income.
It is worth mentioning that Tesla adjusted the structure of the solar roof last year, increasing the complexity of the roof, so the solar roof will rise from $ 65,000 to $ 75,000. According to reports; one of the customers originally quoted $72,000 for the contract, but the actual delivery cost was as high as $146,000; many users of solar roofs expressed difficulty in accepting this.
At the same time, Tesla claimed delays in imports of certain solar modules due to the impact of the US policy on PV modules at the beginning of the year and fluctuations in module prices around the world. Tesla had already suspended nearly all solar roof installations in the U.S. in March under the dual pressures of increased installation difficulty and a low supply of modules.
If time goes back five years, Tesla's BIPV concept can definitely be called advanced. But in fact, BIPV reflects more that photovoltaic modules serve buildings. Through this idea, BIPV's requirements for photovoltaic modules are first and foremost a roof with high cost performance. Although Tesla’s rooftop solar energy is technologically advanced, it ignores the difficulty of actual market promotion; for the market, if the installation cost and later operation and maintenance difficulty of rooftop photovoltaics are much higher than the expected power generation revenue, it is destined to not be recognized.
Although Tesla's solar roof is the forerunner of BIPV, the market rules of BIPV are quietly changing; the expensive photovoltaic tiles on the roof may be outdated in concept. Today, with the continuous innovation of photovoltaic technology, there is not much time left for SolarRoof in the market.
