Tesla News: Solar Roof Reservations are Cancelled Years After $1,000 Deposits

In 2017, Elon Musk announced the revolutionary Tesla Roof system. Customers flocked to place $1,000 deposits. It would be the end-all-be-all for solar energy production, and with their Tesla Powerpack, the home would soon be freed from the confines of grid energy.

At least we hoped. Now, it’s been about three years, and that has failed to materialize. Sure, a few people have received Tesla Solar roofs, but not many are the revolutionary tiles we expected. In fact, most Solar Tiles are on test homes.

In the years since debut, Tesla has performed longevity testing and enacted improvements. As a result, they are on version 3.0 of their tiles, which were “unveiled” in 2019. No doubt the tiles are fantastic, and will be the best residential solar solution when they can be bought. They just are a little late to their own party.

Tesla promoted domestic installations beginning in 2018, internationally soon after. Those customers patiently waited, probably forgetting about their measly $1,000 deposits. After all, large deposits are the usually for Tesla, except for the Cybertruck, which only required $100 down.

Recently, Tesla started sending out emails to some of those reservation holders. It told them that because of their geographic location, which was outside of a service area they intended to operate inside of, they would cancel their order. Their deposit will be refunded, sorry for the inconvenience.

Upon further review, your home is not located within our currently planned service territory. The driving distance from our closest warehouse would make it difficult for us to provide you the high-quality service that our customers deserve. For this reason, we will not be able to proceed with your project. If you agree with our assessment, a response is not required. You will be receiving a refund of your deposit within 7-10 business days to the card used when placing your order. If you have additional questions or want more clarification, please reply to this email or call us at 877-701-7652.

This will upset some people, who likely would’ve held on to their money. It’s understandable how this can come to be, but still upsetting Tesla acts like a company doing constant GoFundMe campaigns. People who live outside of Tesla’s solar markets will just have to wait, or go somewhere else for their energy solutions.

Three years on preorder only to cancel the service will alienate many clients. Perhaps third-party vendors will install Tesla Tiles some day, the world may never know.