This Is When Tesla Roof Will Be Available in Australia


Tesla Autopilot Legality In Australia Explained

Known primarily for its luxurious electric cars and quirky CEO, Tesla Motors is paving the way towards a greener future by offering renewable energy installations in the form of solar panels and fully integrated solar roofs. Tesla’s solar roofs, consisting of individual tiles with solar-capturing technology, are the next biggest thing in clean energy.

While Tesla’s Australian website offers hopeful customers a form to fill out their information, doing so neither orders nor pre-orders the product. Instead, customers will be notified by e-mail when the roof installations begin. Currently, there is no information on when that might be, however it’s expected to be available in 2023.

Although Tesla’s solar roofs are not quite ready for purchase, the company has reasons to believe the pioneer product will be massively successful in the land down under. The next few sections will go into further detail about when Australian customers can expect to see the new technology, along with the steep price tag that’ll likely come with it.

When Will Tesla’s Solar Roof Be Ready in Australia?

Tesla’s Australian website currently offers a page dedicated to its new solar-integrated roofs, along with a contact form asking for the customer’s name, e-mail address, phone number, and home address. However, there is no “Order Now” button visible anywhere on the site or the option to choose standard components such as the size of the roof and wattage.

According to an article published on Gizmodo, submitting this form neither orders nor pre-orders the product. Instead, the customer receives a confirmation e-mail and is supposedly added to a list to be notified when the roof tiles are available.

When might that be? The last update occurred in February 2020, when Tesla’s website form went live. As of now, there’s no way of telling when the roof may actually be ready for installation in Australia.

The lack of progress internationally on Tesla’s part is not uncharacteristic in terms of the solar roof tiles. As of now, only a handful of installations are being completed across the United States. While Tesla’s European website has a section on solar roofs, the supposed “order form” is identical to Australia’s, only offering updates on the product for possible customers.

How Long is the Wait for a Solar Roof?

For areas where the solar roof is already available, the wait time to actually have the product delivered and installed varies greatly. Once a customer’s order has been submitted, and their home has been approved, the installation process typically takes between one to three weeks. However, the time between signing the contract and the actual building of the roof can take up to six months, so it certainly isn’t a quick process.

And these numbers are just for those who were approved. According to Electrek, Tesla began canceling solar roof orders in June of 2020 after many hopeful customers had long ago put down a deposit on the new systems. Tesla cited these reasons as the customers living in areas the company doesn’t cover. Customers were imaginably upset, especially with Musk claiming to make great strides in expansion at the beginning of the year.

The order form for Tesla’s solar roofs still remains on its website, so one can only assume that it is still taking orders and completing installations. However, for those customers who received a refund three years after putting down their original deposit, the company loyalty has likely been severed. As we’ll discuss later in the article, many customers are still receiving their roofs, so these refunds should not be considered the norm.

Why Should Tesla Push for an Australian Expansion?

Though Tesla hasn’t been making great strides internationally, the company has plenty of reasons to believe an Australian expansion would be incredibly successful. According to Energy Matters Australia, the country constructs a yearly average of 20,000 new homes.

Additionally, already constructed Australian homes are increasingly installing solar systems due to the abundance of sunshine and good weather. In fact, Australian solar provider SunWiz predicts that the number of solar installations in 2020 will be around 34% more than the previous year.

Now’s a good a time as any for Tesla to break into the Australian solar market. In February of 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “Looking forward to international expansion later this year.” However, as we reach the end of the year, there is little to no progress internationally on Tesla’s part. There’s no telling when solar orders abroad may be fulfilled.

Costs of Solar Roof Installations in Australia

As Australian customers anxiously await the arrival of Tesla’s new products in their home country, many should be considering the high price tag associated with such an installation. Though the tempered glass tiles are supposedly an affordable investment—there is wide debate on whether the roofs eventually pay themselves off—the initial deposit and payment are certainly not for the faint of heart.

Currently, the exact pricing of a roof installation varies on the size and location of the customer’s home but is typically priced based on square footage. According to The Verge, the average price per square foot clocks in at around $21, for a total of $42,500 for a 2,000 square foot roof. Although the only available price data currently is in USD, a quick conversion puts the total price around AUD 56,000 before incentives.

Like many states in the United States, Australia offers federal rebates for citizens interested in installing solar systems in their homes. The purpose of these rebates is to encourage more people to switch from nonrenewable fossil fuels to clean solar energy. As of July 2019, Australian residents can apply for up to $2,225 in exchange for installing a solar system.

These rebates help reduce the cost of Tesla’s solar roof tiles and vary based on your exact location and size of your home. We recommend reaching out to your local government representative or consulting the Internet to discover exactly how much of an incentive you could receive.

Will Tesla Offer Discounts on Solar Roof in Australia?

Tesla solar is already the lowest cost-per-watt solar on the market, but are there any other ways to save money when ordering?

In short, the only way to get a discount on Tesla solar products is by using an existing Tesla owners “referral link” when ordering.

Tesla has did this same “referral program” concept with it’s vehicles and essentially it allows new customers to get a discount on their purchase by using an existing customers personal referral link.

In regards to Tesla solar discounts, using a Tesla referral link when ordering will save you $300 off solar panels or $500 off solar roof.

The referral discounts are typically only available for a limited time before Tesla stops offering the discount, so take advantage of the savings while you can.

tesla solar panel discount

How Many Solar Roofs Has Tesla Actually Installed?

According to Tesla’s website, the company has installed over 400,000 solar roofs throughout the United States. In fact, despite the various cancelations some customers faced in June, Tesla’s production and installation of these roofs continue to increase in certain approved states, such as New York and California.

All hope isn’t lost for interested customers abroad or in other parts of the United States. Although the company has had a bit of a rocky start getting the product off the ground, customers with successful installations appear happy with their investment.

As the number of national installations continues to increase, international expansion shouldn’t be too far away in the future.

Additionally, Tesla is continuously improving on the roof’s design, the most recent model being the V3—or Version 3. This new version cuts certain parts of the installation process, such as cutting tiles on-site, to make the whole renovation process smoother. Although international customers are forced to wait for a little longer, the version of the product they finally receive is likely to be the best of the best.

Final Thoughts

Although there is no firm date or deadline on when Tesla’s new solar roof tiles will be available in Australia or other parts of the world, local success rates seem to be precisely where they should be. And as these rates increase, it shouldn’t be long before a global expansion occurs. We recommend signing up on Tesla’s website for updates on the product expansion and keeping your eye on your e-mail inbox!

Solar Discounts:

Greg

The articles here on ThatTeslaChannel.com are created by Greg, a Tesla vehicle and Tesla solar expert with nearly half a decade of hands-on experience. The information on this site is fact-checked and tested in-person to ensure the best possible level of accuracy.

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