Tesla just opened up orders for its Solar Roof - here's how much it will cost you

Tesla

Tesla opened up orders for its Solar Roof product on Wednesday.

The company says the roof will price at about $21.85 per square foot.

Installations in the US will begin this year and will be available on a first ordered basis.

Tesla opened up pre-orders and announced pricing information for its Solar Roof product on Wednesday.

"The typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot for Solar Roof, and benefit from a beautiful new roof that also increases the value of their home," Tesla said in a statement.

The company also announced it created a Solar Roof calculator that will let people get an estimate for how much replacing their old roof with a Tesla Solar Roof will cost.

The calculator uses information like the size of the roof, the average local price of electricity, and how much sunlight a neighborhood receives throughout the year to determine the price.

Tesla's Solar Roof uses both solar and non-solar tiles. This allows consumers to choose how many solar tiles they need based on their home's electricity consumption, the company said. Tesla's estimate of $21.85 per square foot for its Solar Roof is based on 35% of the tiles being solar.

To put that into perspective, a Tesla Solar Roof for a 3,000 square foot home would cost more than $65,000. According to Consumer Report, a slate tile roof for a home the same size costs about $45,000.

The company said that while its non-solar tiles are comparable in cost to that of regular roofing tiles, the initial cost of its solar tiles are more expensive. However, the cost will be offset by the value of energy the tiles produce, Tesla claims.

Besides energy savings, CEO Elon Musk said during a press call Wednesday that its roof product will look better than any other roof replacement available.

"When you have this done, you will have the best looking house in the neighborhood," he said. "I think the aesthetics are really that good."

Tesla

People can now order the smooth black glass shingles and the textured glass shingles for their Solar Roof. The Tuscan and French Slate shingles should become available by early 2018, the company said.

Tesla unveiled its solar shingles in October 2016 at a press event. Musk said at the unveiling that Tesla had established a new glass division and that it had worked with SolarCity to design the new solar product.

Tesla, of course, acquired SolarCity in a deal worth $2.1 billion in November 2016, shortly after it revealed the solar shingles.

At the event, Musk said that its roof would price competitively with normal roofs, and could even cost less.

"It's looking quite promising that a solar roof will actually cost less than a normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account," Musk said at the event. "So the basic proposition would be, 'Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, lasts twice as long, costs less, and by the way generates electricity?' It's like, why would you get anything else?"

But in its blog post published Wednesday, the company said that its Solar Roof is more affordable because of the fact that it generates energy.

"Solar Roof is more affordable than conventional roofs because in most cases, it ultimately pays for itself by reducing or eliminating a home's electricity bill," Tesla stated.

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