PepsiCo potato chip subsidiary Frito-Lay is reportedly installing the world’s first known Tesla Semichargers, also known by some as Megachargers, at its Northern California Warehouse, where it will be used to charge at least 15 Tesla Semis the company has ordered.
It was revealed earlier this year that Frito-La would deploy 15 electric trucks that, after further investigation, turned out to be Tesla Semis.
It had already reduced the greenhouse gas emissions of its Modesto-site fleet of vehicles by more than half, and that the site’s nearly 60 onsite vehicles were already powered by electric, lithium-ion technologies (or “natural gas with renewable attributes”).
Tesla confirmed during its first quarter earnings call that Semi production would begin later this year, even though battery supply remains a worry. “Demand is no problem, but near-term cell supply makes it hard to scale Semi,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in March. “This limitation will be less onerous next year.”
Musk had already warned in a previous earnings call, after the company’s 2020 third quarter, that “We need to solve the cell constraint before ramping Semi to significant volume. That’s the only real constraint on Semi’s progress.”
It looks as though Tesla has been able to firm-up its future plans for the Semi, after various Tesla fans deduced over the past few days that the first Megachargers necessary to charge the Tesla Semi were being installed at Frito-Lay’s Modesto factory, and as revealed by Drive Tesla Canada.
Some photos of the site plan for the FritoLay expansion. Mentions of Tesla Semi charging highlighted in orange (I like orange) https://t.co/ipiLpYPImC pic.twitter.com/fo7Iyvfex8
— Marco (@MarcoRPTesla) May 23, 2021
As with most Tesla news – which relies on an odd combination of a company’s almost total reticence to publish updates and a fanbase which has turned internet sleuthing into something of an artform – plans at the Frito-Lay factory are unofficial, but the planning documents seem to at least give credence to the rumours.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.