Tesla kills Solar Roof tiles — the product was never profitable

Tesla has discontinued the Solar Roof, its solar-tile roofing product, Electrek has learned from sources close to the program. The company has informed its network of certified third-party installers that solar roof tiles are no longer available to order, and that only conventional solar panels will be supplied moving forward.

Two sources confirmed the end of the program. One of them said that internally, Tesla has concluded that the product is not financially viable. Tesla's own website corroborates the wind-down: the long-standing Solar Roof page now redirects to the solar panels section, and "Solar Roof" has been removed entirely from the Energy navigation menu, which today lists only Solar Panels, Powerwall, and Megapack. The changes were live as of today.

The move formalizes a retreat that has been visible for years. Tesla stopped breaking out solar roof deployment figures in its quarterly reports in early 2024, and the product had all but disappeared from the company's marketing.

The Solar Roof was never just a product — it was a pitch. Elon Musk unveiled it in October 2016 on a Hollywood back lot, using homes from the set of Desperate Housewives fitted with the tiles. Weeks later, Tesla shareholders voted to approve the company's roughly $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, a debt-laden solar installer. The Solar Roof was the centerpiece of that deal, designed to sell the merger to investors and the public.

Despite years of development and marketing, the product failed to achieve mass adoption. High costs, complex installation, and competition from traditional solar panels made it a niche offering. Tesla's retreat from the Solar Roof marks the end of one of the company's most ambitious — and most troubled — energy products.