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This is the sort of thing I've come to expect from Elon Musk, the plan that once you see it you think "oh...yeah. Of course." Tacking the removal fees to the
by _edo 7y ago
This is the sort of thing I've come to expect from Elon Musk, the plan that once you see it you think "oh...yeah. Of course." Tacking the removal fees to the end of contract is a little iffy to me, but overall, what. a. move.
This gives consumers who want a way to get into solar a low-cost, low-risk entry point where they'll probably break even, do a little better, or at least be somewhere in that neighborhood month to month. There is a $1,500 removal fee (which could be done for private contractors for less) but that's also kind of peanuts for anybody who's looked into solar and realized the massive up-front investment. I know that's why my house doesn't have solar.
For Tesla this gives them them the ability to ramp up production, have a huge testing base, and start lowering costs while raising quality. If costs get low enough and quality high enough they could push solar technology to the point that it makes sense for the average consumer to purchase off the shelf. Short of that they're getting a whole bunch of solar panels out there.
Talk about a win-win, this is amazing.
edit: I just woke up and kind of jumped the gun here, didn't even realize I was looking at the 'commercial solar' page.....but it's too late to delete this comment. I do think it's a really cool business model and it's also really cool that SunRun has been doing it, too.
- omgwtfbyobbq 7y agoI believe Tesla dropped the $1,500 removal fee from residential rental installations for the time being. They charge a time and material rate for removal of their commercial rentals (section 8). https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/CI-Energy-Products-Subscription-Agreement_CA.pdf https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/CI-Energy-Products...
- chairmanwow 7y agoSunrun has been doing this for a while. [1] https://www.sunrun.com/solar-plans-and-services/monthly-solar-lease https://www.sunrun.com/solar-plans-and-services/monthly-sola...
- m463 7y agoUnfortunately, they don't show any numbers at all. I think that makes it a lot less compelling. What folks want to see is: my power company charges x/kwh, what is each plan per kwh?
- october_sky 7y ago> This gives consumers who want a way ... The title is "commercial" not consumers. This isn't for residential, which was already soft-launched months/one-year ago.
- mrdoops 7y agoMost solar companies I know of do removal fees of some kind. Costs of operating past a certain point in the installation process make a fee-free cancellation a risky thing. Beyond Tesla's rental I'd also like to see combinations of financing and service / upgrade & optimization contracts. Power usage, and optimal tech changes over time. Most solar installation contracts are inflexible to modification over time. This is mostly due to the single transactional nature between financing companies and installers.
- hef19898 7y agoWhat I never got about all these solar business es (models) is why everybody considers them in the first place. They are capital intensive because the installing company has to pre-finance the whole thing which means it is also likely to be cash negative. Selling to the actual users, commercial or private, means high sales efforts and especially for private customers low lifetime value. With the ever decreasing costs of solar I'm not sure what the exact value proposition is here. Financing can be done by banks and installation / sale can be done local installers. The latter are anyway needed to plan and ultimately install the whole thing.