Tesla discontinues Solar Roof after a decade of broken promises

Tesla ↘ 2.15% has officially ended its Solar Roof tile program, informing third-party installers that it will no longer supply the product and shifting its residential solar strategy entirely to conventional panels. The company's dedicated Solar Roof webpage now redirects to its standard solar panels page, and the product has been removed from Tesla's Energy navigation menu.electrek

The discontinuation, first reported by Electrek on Wednesday, was confirmed by two sources close to the program who said Tesla told its certified installer network that solar roof tiles are no longer available to order. Internally, the company concluded the product was not financially viable.electrek

A Decade-Long Struggle to Scale

Elon Musk unveiled the Solar Roof in October 2016 on a Hollywood back lot using homes from the set of "Desperate Housewives" fitted with glass tiles designed to double as solar panels. The event came weeks before Tesla shareholders voted to approve the company's roughly $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, the debt-laden solar installer chaired by Musk and run by his cousins. It later emerged during shareholder litigation that the tiles shown at the 2016 event were not yet functioning solar products.electrek

Musk repeatedly promised Tesla would reach 1,000 Solar Roof installations per week. The company never came close. At its peak, Tesla was installing roughly 21 to 32 Solar Roofs per week, according to Wood Mackenzie data cited by Electrek — more than 95% short of the target. In total, the firm estimated Tesla installed only about 3,000 Solar Roof systems in the United States across roughly seven years.electrek

Pricing proved equally problematic. Tesla initially marketed the product at around $22 per square foot, but installed costs ballooned far beyond early quotes. A 2021 round of price increases — in some cases imposed after customers had already signed contracts — triggered a class-action lawsuit that Tesla settled for $6 million in 2023.electrek

What Comes Next

Tesla is not leaving residential solar. The company launched a new US-assembled conventional solar panel, the TSP-420, in January 2026, and its residential energy lineup now consists of solar panels, Powerwall, and Megapack. Tesla stopped breaking out Solar Roof deployment figures in its quarterly reports in early 2024, and the product had largely vanished from the company's marketing well before this week's formal shutdown.basenor+1

Existing Solar Roof owners should continue to receive warranty coverage and app-based monitoring, though questions remain about how long Tesla will maintain replacement tile inventory for repairs. Tesla has not issued a public statement on the discontinuation.basenor