Tesla had a busy and exciting week. On Tuesday, Tesla announced production has begun for the solar roof shingles at the Buffalo Gigafactory. Elon Musk revealed the new solar shingles, which look like ordinary roof tiles, over a year ago.
Tesla’s solar roof tiles have been heralded as a significant breakthrough in solar technology, allowing the convergence of solar cells and roofing material into a robust glass roof shingle that, from the ground, look like ordinary roofing shingles. Tesla has customized the glass roofing shingle into four distinct styles; Textured, Smooth, Tuscan and Slate. According to the Tesla website, customers can now order Textured and Smooth, while the Tuscan and Slate are shown as “Coming in 2018”. Although manufacturing has begun, no actual delivery dates have been confirmed.
In other news; Tesla has won the right to sell directly to consumers in Rhode Island. This is a very solid victory for Tesla which will hopefully, send a very strong signal to lawmakers in the Connecticut legislature, that they will be losing tax revenue to yet another state as residents of Connecticut, who are currently prohibited from buying direct from Tesla, can now buy a Tesla in Rhode Island, Mass or New York.
Finally, anecdotal evidence shows Tesla making headway in Model 3 production numbers, as Model 3’s have begun showing up in very positive reviews all over the internet.
Image – By Windell Oskay from Sunnyvale, CA, USA – Tesla Visit 3, CC BY 2.0, Link