Tinting a Tesla in Texas
· 6 min read
The short answer
A Model 3 prices like any other sedan and a Model Y like a crossover — $449 and $469 for a full car in ceramic. The glass roof is a separate panel, priced as the sunroof add-on at $119 in ceramic or $159 in Ceramic XR, and it's the panel that changes how the car actually feels, because a Tesla roof is one uninterrupted sheet of glass over your head. Every film we carry is non-metallic, so nothing interferes with the antennas, the key card or the car's LTE.
The side glass is the ordinary part#
This surprises people who expect an EV surcharge. A Model 3's four door windows and rear glass are a sedan's worth of glass, cut and installed like a sedan's. A Model Y is a crossover. There's no adder for the badge and no adder for the drivetrain.
| Film | Model 3 | Model Y |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon | $249 | $269 |
| Ceramic | $449 | $469 |
| Ceramic XR | $649 | $669 |
The roof is the panel that matters#
A Model 3 or Model Y roof is a single pane of glass running from the windshield header to the rear hatch, directly over both rows of seats. Tesla's own glass carries an IR coating and it does real work, but it is a very large horizontal surface pointed at a Texas sun that spends June through September more or less straight overhead.
Film on the roof is priced as the sunroof add-on: $79 in carbon, $119 in ceramic, $159 in Ceramic XR. Of everything you can do to a Tesla, this is the one owners come back and tell us about.
What to run on the fronts#
Texas requires the front sides to pass more than 25% of light, so 35% is the shade to ask for. That's exactly where carbon has given up most of its heat performance (~42% infrared) and where ceramic hasn't (~73%). On a car whose entire cabin experience is quiet and climate-controlled, the fronts are worth doing in ceramic.
Does the Model 3 or Model Y need windshield film?
The factory windshield already blocks most UV, as all laminated windshields do. What it doesn't stop is infrared, and a $189 70% clear ceramic across the whole windshield takes that off your hands and dash without darkening the glass. Whether a full-windshield film is street legal in Texas depends on the measured VLT of the finished glass — we'll measure yours and tell you where it lands rather than guess.
Will tint affect Autopilot or the cameras?
No. The forward cameras sit behind the windshield in the mirror housing and we don't film that area. The B-pillar and rear cameras look through glass we do film, and standard automotive film doesn't degrade them — but this is a reason we don't install limo-dark film on a car with camera-based driver assistance and won't pretend otherwise.
How long does a Tesla take?
A full car is two to three hours, same as any sedan. Add about forty-five minutes if the roof is going on. Morning drop-off, out well before 5:30.
Pick the body style, add the roof, and see the total before you call.
Price a Model 3 or Model Y