Tesla’s customers in California and several states in the east coast are suing the company for massively increasing the price of its solar roof products.
Elon Musk, chief executive, first announced the idea of solar roof in autumn 2016. A few weeks later, Tesla acquired solar panel installer SolarCity for about $2 billion. This controversial move was questioned by shareholders.
In early April, after buyers had begun expensive preparations, Tesla suddenly raised the price of solar roofs by a large margin – in some cases by more than 50%, according to a lawsuit filed in Northern California federal court on Monday.
The legal complaint wrote that when consumers were making plans for the installation after sales contracts had been signed, Tesla told them that if they wanted to continue the installation, they must pay 50% more. This is a typical bait and switch scam.
In an earnings call last month, Elon Musk admitted they had made a “major mistake” in the solar roof project, which led to further cost overruns and delays.
Elon Musk said Tesla had trouble assessing the difficulty of installation on some roofs and the complexity of roofs varied greatly. He pointed out that if the roof has bulges or the underlying structure is problematic or is not strong enough to withstand Tesla’s solar panels, then the cost may double or even triple. If customers don’t want to pay for the increase, Tesla will refund them the deposit, Elon Musk said.
