![]() And spreading the word is difficult given that Musk is extremely skeptical of advertising. Far too many Texans move every few years to make such an investment pay off, Jaynes said. ![]() A lot of that has to do with the premium price that can easily run to $50,000 for a Solar Roof with an average 10 kilowatt array including stationary battery. ![]() ![]() “We basically made some significant mistakes in assessing the difficulty of certain roofs,” Musk conceded back in April 2021, opting to try to standardize the approach so that in future, each customer’s house “looks the same electrically instead of being a unique work of art.”Īnd persuading homeowners to take the leap into solar isn’t an easy sell, even in places like Texas that have a shaky and unreliable power grid. Musk has already tried to course correct after realizing that-unlike the over 1 million virtually identical Model Y cars stamped out in cookie-cutter fashion this year-installing solar PVs to fit each and every need required reinventing the wheel each time. In his view, Tesla’s solar business might very well grow faster were it a stand-alone company. “This year we’re doing about 75 megawatts per quarter, but we’re growing quite rapidly, so next year we will increase that to over 100 megawatts,” he says. Instead Martinson cofounded his own solar energy company and claims it already surpassed his role model’s current average run-rate of 60 MW of solar PV capacity per quarter. Gary Black, managing partner, the Future Fund Solar remains so insignificant most investors don’t bother trying to model its results. The native Swede and Tesla Model 3 driver was inspired by Musk during his time living in San Diego and says he applied five separate times to work for the carmaker-receiving a rejection every single time. “If you think about what might be the opposite of the centralized production lines at Tesla’s streamlined car business, it would be providing custom-made solar roofs where you have to measure everything to the inch to fit perfectly,” says Svea Solar cofounder Erik Martinson. Some critics (and competitors) think that Musk miscalculated in trying to use the Tesla blueprint at SolarCity-before realizing how different the two businesses are. And it’s harder to differentiate yourself than in EVs, where Tesla has a first mover advantage.” “But it’s a much tougher business since a lot of it is installation. “It is the next frontier of sustainability, because you can use your Solar Roof to charge your car,” he says. Yet while its Megapack commercial battery storage business outperforms investor expectations, solar specifically remains so insignificant that most investors don’t even bother trying to model its results, according to Gary Black, cofounder and managing partner of the Future Fund and a well-known Tesla bull. Musk has often predicted his $3.9 billion energy operations will eventually grow to rival in size and profitability its much larger autos business, which generated $67 billion in revenue and a gross margin in the high 20s last year. “They tend to already be on the bandwagon and are looking at how to go to the next level.” “We don’t sell a lot of Tesla Solar Roofs to people that don’t already have an electric vehicle,” KPost’s Jaynes confirms. In theory, solar completes Musk’s virtuous circle of clean energy products-a holy trinity where Tesla customers own an EV, plug the car into their household battery to recharge, and power everything with the warm bountiful glow of the sun’s rays.
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