Elon Musk says Tesla’s Solar Roof is going global later this year

Tesla’s Solar Roof has had a rough start. Originally introduced in Oct. 2016, the Solar Roof was re-worked several times, and has only gone into wider distribution this year, partially due to Tesla’s well-documented struggles to produce its Model 3 at volume. 

But it now seems Tesla is serious about making its Solar Roof ubiquitous. On Sunday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the company plans to offer the roof internationally “later this year.” 

Musk would not name individual countries in which the roof would be offered, but he did say that the roof will initially be produced in Tesla’s Gigafactory in New York, with production going international with time. 

Tesla’s Solar Roof simplifies (and, ideally, reduces cost of) the process of installing solar panels on your roof by combining the panels and tiles into one. Musk often highlighted the Roof’s appearance, claiming that it’s visually far more appealing than traditional solar panels and traditional roofs. 

Musk also encouraged all interested to apply for a job in Tesla’s Solar Roof team. The company is hiring roofers and installers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah. and Virginia.

There’s a worrying bit of news today regarding Tesla’s international production expansion, though. According to Reuters, the company was forced to pause prep work for its Berlin Gigafactory after a local environmentalist group filed a complaint with a German court. The plant — Tesla’s fourth massive factory, besides two in the U.S. and one in China — is scheduled to be operational in July 2021.