Tesla has agreed to honor solar roof prices on signed contracts for the first time.

 

Tesla has agreed to honor solar roof prices on signed contracts for the first time.

Tesla has decided to finally honor the solar roof costs given to customers who had signed contracts, according to documents submitted with the court.

Tesla added a new "roof complexity" factor to its solar roof rates in March, which means prices of its solar roof to increase.

For other solar roof installations, the cost increased from 30 % to 150 %

That's a huge price increase in and of itself, but the oddest part is that Tesla decided to apply the new price hike to customers who had already signed a contract for their solar roof installation.

Customers who had signed a contract with Tesla a year ago were sometimes requested to pay up to 100% more for their new roof, ignoring the fact that they had signed a contract with Tesla.

As one might expect, this led in the many legal cases, which were merged into a class action.

Tesla's lawyers informed the plaintiffs in the combination that the company started "a program for customers who signed Solar Roof contracts before the April 2021 price increases to refund those customers to their former prices," according to a new filing.

Tesla's comment in the submission was reported to the court:

Tesla's counsel informed Plaintiffs' counsel on September 13, 2021 that Tesla had just launched a scheme to refund customers who signed Solar Roof contracts before the April 2021 price modifications to their original pricing (if they were subject to a price increase in April 2021). Plaintiffs' lawyers have asked for further information and told Tesla's lawyers that they feel settlement talks should start right away to consider, clarify, and confirm particular aspects of relief.

Before the legal case may be withdrawn, the plaintiffs have 30 days to investigate this new "program" and verify their needs.

Conclusion 

To be honest, I'm not sure what Tesla expected to happen here. They'd signed contracts, because they'd have to follow to the terms.

I'm just unhappy that those customers had to go to court to get Tesla to behave properly.

I believe it is a good example of how, while being a great company that has had the single largest impact on driving electric vehicle adoption, Tesla can still make mistakes, and we must be alert.

The cost of solar roofs was underestimated by Tesla. That's OK. It happens all the time. Increase the price, but you can't ask customers who are upgrading, who need a new roof, and who have already signed a contract for you to build that new roof to pay tens of thousands of dollars more than they planned.

That's not acceptable.

I'm glad they're returning on that decision, but I believe they should investigate why it was allowed in the first place and why it took so long to reverse.

Surprisingly, the solar roof was the only product eligible for referral prizes after Tesla changed its referral program last week.

It was also increased to $500 for each solar roof installation that was turned on. Following the large price hikes, it could signal that Tesla's stock isn't in high demand.