
Forward Labs' new solar roof is 33% cheaper than Tesla's - phr4ts
http://inhabitat.com/forward-labs-new-solar-roof-is-33-cheaper-than-teslas-and-it-can-be-installed-in-half-the-time/
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erikpukinskis
Their web site is currently down. I can't find any mention of whether they are
actually selling these. Supposedly they did a Kickstarter, but I can't find a
link to that on Google either.

Neither of these products really have a price until they are in production
anyway. And frankly, if this startup is trying to compete on price I'm not
sure that's a good thing. Tesla's model of starting on the luxury segment and
moving down seems to have worked well.

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bradknowles
One problem that they will have is style -- not everyone loves the "standing
seam metal roof" style. Some of prefer a style that looks more like
traditional shingles.

And standing seam won't work with some architectural limitations that some
HOAs have.

Interesting theory, but I'll have to see it in practice.

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chrisbennet
_" Taylor, Forward Labs CEO, told Green Tech Media that the company is aiming
to do the right thing for the right reason. In contrast, he believes that
Tesla’s design is the “wrong thing for the right reason.” “It’s wrong to
devalue people’s houses with something that doesn’t look good. It’s wrong to
put holes in roofs; it’s wrong to go to war with homeowner associations; and
it’s wrong to try to ram something down people’s throats that they don’t
want,” he said."_

Isn't this a straw man argument? Telsa's roof shingles look better than
standing seam metal roofs and I haven't heard anywhere that people don't want
it. Did I miss something?

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greglindahl
You aren't missing anything: any PR expert will tell CEOs to never say things
like this. This rant isn't even coherent! He'd be much better off positioning
his product as yet another sensible choice which happens to be 30% less than
some similar products, and some more advanced technology which reduces cost,
blah blah.

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fred_is_fred
Tesla's price makes zero economic sense at least where I live where
electricity is $0.11/kWh. I guess most people will buy it just to have it as a
status symbol.

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greglindahl
Are you comparing it to the cost of electricity, or the price of a nice roof
plus electricity? Because Tesla was pretty clear about how the pricing works.
And if Forward Labs cost is 33% cheaper than Tesla's premium roof, it also
doesn't make sense if you don't need to replace your current premium roof.

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fred_is_fred
Sorry for the late reply. A new roof, assuming you mean premium shingles and
new paper and removing the old crap where I live is $5k +/\- 2k. I've gotten
solar quotes for about 10k for my house. That's way out of line with the Tesla
roof.

