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.
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.
"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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.