In April, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company’s New York-based gigafactory could create enough solar tiles in a week for 1,000 homes.
Now the the automaker and energy company is reaching out to certain customers to let them know that they won’t be receiving one of those roofs.
Electrek reports Tesla is emailing customers who put down deposits for a Solar Roof to inform them that their order is canceled because their home is not in an area covered by Tesla.
“Upon further review, your home is not located within our currently planned service territory,” the email states, according to Electrek. “The driving distance from our closest warehouse would make it difficult for us to provide you the high-quality service that our customers deserve. For this reason, we will not be able to proceed with your project.”
According to Electrek, customers provided $1,000 deposits for a Solar Roof. The email sent by Tesla states customers will receive a refund of their deposit within seven to 10 business days.
Tesla revealed its Solar Roof in 2016, a roof system that has solar cells integrated into the roof versus traditional solar panels. Version 3 of the Solar Roof was announced last fall, with the company stating it's priced to be less than what the average roof costs plus solar panels.
Last December, Tesla updated its website to include multiple job postings for installers, including California, Florida, Texas and Nevada. It seems, however, that these efforts haven’t expanded Tesla’s service areas far enough. This was an issue Musk alluded to during the company’s April 29 earnings call.
“It’s also building up and training the very diverse group of companies in the roofing industry to also install Solar Roof that I think will allow us to scale far beyond 1,000 a week,” Musk said.
Tesla’s solar installations declined by 26% in the first quarter of 2020 when compared to the same time period last year. Musk said COVID-19 is at least partially responsible, saying stay-at-home orders prevented the company from installing its products and gaining permits.