Gary Zhou 
Tesla Solar customers who were subjected to price hikes will have them reversed, according to new court documents.
In April 2021, Matthew Amans stated that after signing a contract with Tesla to install a Solar Roof on his home for around $72,000, he received an email from Tesla stating the price of the installation would increase. Upon examining his account, Amans saw a price of $146,462.22, more than double what was initially agreed upon. Eventually, more customers shared similar stories.
Now, new documents from the United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division, states that Tesla will have to return pricing to the original rate. On September 13th, 2021, Tesla’s lawyers informed counsel for Plaintiffs that Tesla would be replacing the prices to what they were initially agreed upon. The court documents said:
“On September 13, 2021, counsel for Tesla informed counsel for Plaintiffs that Tesla had recently launched a program for customers who signed Solar Roof contracts before the April 2021 price changes to return those customers to their original pricing (if they were subject to a price increase in April 2021). Plaintiffs’ counsel have requested additional details and advised counsel for Tesla that they believe settlement discussions should commence immediately in order to consider, clarify, and formalize certain terms of relief.”
The decision will affect all “similarly situated individuals.” Fox News initially reported the development.
Solar Roof requires the purchase of a Tesla Powerwall battery, which stores additional energy accumulated from the solar roof to prevent blackouts and outages. However, Powerwall production was stunted due to microchip shortages.
Tesla Solar Retrofits and Solar Roof deployments reached record levels in Q2 at 85 MW. This figure was more than tripled compared to the same time last year. The company wrote about the growth of the Solar program in its 2021 Q2 Earnings Call Shareholder Deck:
“Solar deployments reached 85 MW in Q2, more than tripling YoY. Additionally, cash/loan solar deployments more than quadrupled YoY. Solar Roof deployments grew substantially both YoY as well as sequentially in Q2. Thus far, our solar + storage product remains very popular, and we continue to improve efficiency of our install crews.”
