Tesla will begin selling two of its four solar shingle options starting Wednesday afternoon: the smooth glass and textured glass tiles.
Tesla solar glass roof orders open this afternoon. I think it will be great. More in about 10 hours …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2017
@chriscardinal Black glass smooth and textured will be first. Tuscan and French Slate in about six months.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2017
Tesla’s French slate and Tuscan glass tile options, however, won’t be made available until 2018.
Tesla unveiled its solar roof product last October, a month before it acquired SolarCity in a deal worth $2.1 billion. At the time, Musk said Tesla was offering four different tile aesthetics to encourage customers to ditch clunky solar panels for a beautiful roof.
“First of all, I’ve never seen a solar roof that I would actually want … they’re weird,” Musk said in November. “Every one of them that I’ve seen is worse than a normal roof, without exception. So unless you’re going to beat a roof on aesthetics, why bother?”
The company has partnered with Panasonic to produce the shingles’ solar cells at its plant in Buffalo, New York.
Musk said installations will begin in the US this year, but that deliveries and installations won’t occur in the UK and Australia until next year.
Wednesday’s order rollout will mark the first time customers can get a glimpse at the expected cost of Tesla’s solar roof, which Musk has said will be cheaper than a normal roof, even before factoring in the value of generating electricity.
Correction: Two solar glass options can be ordered starting Wednesday afternoon, not one.
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This article was originally published on Business Insider. Copyright 2017.
