Some new thoughts on Tesla...

[Sig]

Maybe we've got some confusion here? He was discussing the solar panel branch of Tesla which they salvaged when acquiring solar City. Hence the discussion of installation costs, payback period, etc

Ah, my bad. Completely misunderstood that one!

 

[misterkel]

How many years for these things to pay for themselves? If my electric bill is $200 a month (let's say $2500 per year) and I'm paying 50K (after gov't rebates) that's 25 years to recoup cost for the install. I assume it would be less because you are selling to the grid also? But how much is that netting you?

One thing you're forgetting - houses do need roofs, so the cost of another type of roof would reduce the net.

But, yeah - they cost a lot. My guess? Sell to richies to cover the R&D costs, then drop the price by 10%/year, picking up increasingly less wealthy customers along the way, till you get to production price + reasonable profit.