Rahul Somvanshi
Tesla has stopped supplying its Solar Roof tiles and will sell only conventional solar panels going forward, according to two people familiar with the program cited by Electrek. The move ends a product that was unveiled almost a decade ago and never met its commercial promises.
Tesla’s own website reflects the change. The long-standing Solar Roof page now redirects to the company’s solar panels page, and “Solar Roof” has been removed from the Energy section’s navigation menu, which now lists only Solar Panels, Powerwall and Megapack. The alterations were live as of 20 August.
The Solar Roof was introduced by Elon Musk in October 2016 on a Hollywood set dressed with homes from the television series Desperate Housewives. The launch doubled as a pitch for Tesla’s roughly $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, a solar installer where Musk was the largest shareholder and chairman and which was led by his cousins. During later shareholder litigation over that deal, it emerged that the tiles shown at the 2016 event were not yet functioning solar products.
The original sales pitch promised a roof that would cost less than a conventional roof plus separate solar panels, with early quotes around $22 per square foot. The reality was far more expensive. In 2021 Tesla sharply raised Solar Roof prices, in some cases after customers had already signed contracts. That led to a class-action lawsuit that Tesla settled for $6 million in 2023. One customer’s quoted price reportedly rose from about $72,000 to roughly $146,000 before installation.
Volume fell short of targets by a wide margin. Musk repeatedly said Tesla would reach 1,000 Solar Roof installations a week, a goal he attached to the end of 2019 and the first half of 2020. At its peak, the company installed about 21 to 32 roofs a week, according to Wood Mackenzie data — more than 95 percent below the aim. The research firm estimated Tesla installed only about 3,000 Solar Roof systems in the United States across roughly seven years.
Tesla stopped reporting Solar Roof deployment figures in its quarterly results in early 2024, and the product had largely vanished from the company’s marketing. The company has shifted to standard rooftop panels paired with its Powerwall battery and has emphasized plans for large-scale U.S. solar manufacturing of panels rather than tiles. The pivot comes as solar deployment expands worldwide and renewable records are set across major markets.
The discontinuation does not reflect on rooftop solar as a technology. Conventional panels remain a cost-effective choice for many homeowners depending on roof type and local electricity rates, and several competing solar-shingle products are now on the market. Tesla has not issued a separate public announcement about ending the Solar Roof line.
