Tesla pushes back e-truck production date to 2020
Tesla has confirmed that its electric truck will only go into production in 2020, a year later than previously planned. It remains unclear where the Tesla Semi will be assembled.
For a long time, the Tesla electric truck project was relatively quiet. Now Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s Automotive President and head of the truck program, commented on the subject as part of the company’s quarterly earnings call. Guillen revealed that production would not start until next year at an – as yet unknown– location. However, it is clear that the drives and batteries for the Tesla Semi will be manufactured in the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.
Guillen said: “Next year we will start production. We are very happy, we are driving the trucks extensively with so far, I think, quite amazing success, yes.” In addition to the practical vehicle tests, the Californians are currently also making improvements to the design.
Earlier in the day, CEO Elon Musk said the goal was to produce 100,000 electric trucks a year. Tesla has been accepting reservations with large down payments for two years now, so the update on the change in production plans appears to be well in order. The Semi is to be offered for 150,000 dollars (300-mile version) or 180,000 dollars (500-mile version) for now.
Meanwhile, according to Elon Musk, a decision on the production site for the compact SUV Model Y planned for Tesla will be made in the next few weeks. The options are the plant in California and the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. Series production should start at the end of 2020. Model Y will build on the platform of Model 3 and use around 75 per cent of its components. Tesla lists both the Model Y as well as the Tesla Semi electric truck among its “main projects” in its latest quarterly report and expects to invest further.
Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.
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