Back in 2017, Tesla came out with a bold idea to revolutionise heavy transport by introducing the Tesla Semi truck. After years of development, testing and being pushed back several times, Tesla will finally be delivering the first Tesla Semi trucks to their customers.Ā
The update was announced by Teslaās CEO Elon Musk with the production of customer trucks already underway. Given this project has been in the works for a few years now, what do the latest updates tell us?
Tesla truck customer to receive first truck in December
In a tweet, Elon Musk announced that production has begun on the Tesla Semi truck near its Nevada Tesla Gigafactory. These will be the first customer vehicles to be delivered to PepsiCo on the 1st of December this year.
Excited to announce start of production of Tesla Semi Truck with deliveries to @Pepsi on Dec 1st! pic.twitter.com/gq0l73iGRW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 6, 2022
After unveiling the truck back in 2017, it was expected to have a release date as early as 2019. The product development was put on the back burner as Tesla scaled the production of its most popular Model 3 and Model Y.
Further details have also been confirmed by Elon Musk about what can be expected from the Tesla Semi truckās pure EV range.
Massive 805 km of range on a single charge
An expected range of 500 miles or 805 km was confirmed by Elon Musk. These would be expected from the trucks delivered to Pepsi Co in December.Ā
Itās also unclear as to what size batteries Tesla would be using in their Semi truck model to deliver this impressive range.
Unlike Teslaās consumer EVs, it would be a bit harder to find out the real-world range under load as these Tesla Semis are heading straight to customers. That means, in the short term, the real-world range testing data would remain with them.
Megacharger for EV trucks already on Pepsi site
Tesla originally aimed to deliver trucks to Pepsi Co last year in 2021 but that was delayed due to the pandemic and anticipated shortage of battery cells. Although the deliveries of the actual trucks didnāt take place, Tesla did install their Megachargers at PepsiCoās Modesto production facility.Ā
Now, these chargers can finally be put into action before the end of this year as the first of an order of 100 Tesla Semi trucks make their way to PepsiCo.
This is a big step for Tesla and it adds to the progress being made by many heavy commercial truck manufacturers in decarbonising heavy road transport.Ā
RizĀ is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.