Elon Musk’s Tesla is giving up on its Solar Roof — the latest sign that the EV company is shifting gears as its mercurial CEO continues to lean into fossil fuels to sustain his AI ambitions.
Two sources with inside knowledge of the program confirmed to Electrek that the company is discontinuing its solar roof tiles, a key offering allowing homeowners to turn their roofs into renewable energy generators without relying on more unsightly solar panels. According to one of the sources, Tesla found that the product is simply not financially viable.
However, Tesla will continue supplying solar panels, meaning that it hasn’t entirely given up on solar.
In true Musk fashion, Tesla sold its Solar Roof to investors as a cheap way to generate off-grid power at just $22 per square foot back in 2016. But customers who were willing to take the company up on the offer found that the prices for installing the solar tiles immediately ballooned far beyond what Tesla originally quoted, a major disparity that triggered a class-action lawsuit, which the company later settled.
