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| Tesla solar shingles, designed to mimic ordinary roofing sheets. | Image: Tesla |
Tesla announces it has slashed the price of its solar panels to forestall any further decline in its sales margin. It's online configuration tool showcases a 4KW line-up of panels priced at $7,980 after a federal tax credit, which pegs it at $1.99 per watt including installation. The New York Times states the pricing
could swing between $1.75 and $1.99 per watt across varying locations in the US.
Sanjay Shah, head of Tesla’s solar business, keyed two points relating how Tesla makes these price reductions feasible for the general populace to begin with. The first point undertaken by Tesla, is in increasing its number of installations that up to good standards. Customers can now purchase panels in increments of 4kW, in the form of a 12-panel array. The second route is that of customers carrying out home installations by themselves like the photographing of electric meters and circuit breaker boxes, which were previously handled by Tesla personnels.
These modifications recently made in Tesla service delivery are crucial in keeping its business from imploding due to low consumer demands, which dropped to its lowest level in six years in the first quarter of this year. The Buffalo News notes that the company deployed 47 megawatts in the quarter, compared to 73 megawatts in the same period in 2018. Tesla has now officially dropped to third place in terms of solar installations in the US, trailing Vivint Solar and Sunrun, as reported by the New York Times.
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| Tesla's Traditional Solar Panels. | Image: Tesla |
Sanjay Shah, told the public that by the second half of this year, he intends to drive sales of Tesla's trademark solar roof, solar shingles, which are designed to mimic those of ordinary roofing sheets. The Solar shingle saw its debut in 2016, and was subsequently installed on Elon Musk’s house in 2017. In the season of Tesla’s last earnings call, Elon Musk revealed the company to be in development phase, as the roof sees its market entry, but issues plaguing the life span of the roof stalled its world wide sale.
Tesla, as an electric company, even loosing $702 million last quarter to its less than expected car sales quagmire, still sits profitable in its highly diversified company structure and is expected to continue in its loss trend up until the second quarter, but with optimism, it will see an upward turn of profitability in the second half of the year.