Walmart Canada triples its Tesla Semi order

Walmart Canada has reserved another 100 electric trucks at Tesla. After the Canadian branch of the US retail giant ordered 30 Tesla Semi two years ago, Walmart Canada is now increasing its order to a total of 130 units of the Tesla electric truck.

You can find updates below.

The order is part of Walmart’s recent pledge to become CO2-neutral by 2040. As a result, Walmart Canada has now set a target to convert 20% of its existing fleet to electric drives by the end of 2022. The fleet conversion should be complete by 2028; only Walmart speaks of “alternative power” concerning the latter target.

It remains to be seen how many Tesla Semi will reach Walmart Canada in time to fulfil the interim goal by the end of 2022. Tesla is still building the plant near Austin, where they will produce the electric truck so quantities will likely be limited in the run-up period.

Tesla introduced the 500-mile-range (800-kilometer) Semi in November 2017, and originally said it would be available in 2019. The launch date has since been postponed to 2021 with one reason to be found in the announcements at Battery Day. Elon Musk stated the Semi would use cathodes with high nickel content and Tesla is only working on starting producing these cells.

The wait has not deterred Walmart that is seeing the heavy-duty electric truck as an integral part of their decarbonisation process. “Tripling our reservation of Tesla Semi trucks is part of our ongoing effort to innovate the business and prioritize sustainability,” said John Bayliss, Senior Vice-President, Logistics and Supply Chain, Walmart Canada.

The retailer is not the only large brand that put an order in with Tesla. PepsiCo had already ordered 100 Semi at the end of 2017. In fact, Tesla has been accepting reservations with large down payments for three years now and our unofficial count is nearing 400 units in the growing list of pre-orders.

Walmart is now likely the largest client, closely followed by UPS that ordered 125 of the trucks. Eco-management company Bee’ah from the middle east also ordered 50 Tesla Semi and the brewing company Anheuser-Busch took 40, the food company Sysco ordered another 50 models. The DHL supply chain had also gone ahead and ordered ten of the trucks for the Americas. This brings the internal count here to 405 Tesla Semi trucks and the list can certainly be continued.

Update 05 November 2020: Our count of Tesla Semi orders continues as it looks as if Walmart just lost its status as Tesla’s biggest client. Pride Group Enterprises, a North American holding company with truck leasing as its main business, has reportedly reserved 150 electric trucks from Tesla. The agreement includes an option to expand the order to 500 Tesla Semi at a later date.

PGE said it had already paid the deposit for the first 150 e-trucks in full and with support of their longstanding partner Hitachi capital.

Sam Johal, Pride Group Enterprises CEO, also stressed the option “to increase our order as we gauge customer acceptance of this new technology.” Pride will prioritise allocation in states and provinces “with the most welcoming electric commercial vehicle environment,” they said and named California as a market.

The vision is “to invest in facilities that will support charging, full-service maintenance and a consistent supply of electric trucks on North American highways,” states Johal. The company also stated that they were looking into other options for all-electric Class 8 trucks. “Pride Group Enterprises is already busy investing in the necessary infrastructure for parking, charging and full maintenance at all of its locations,” the executive added.

We now count 555 confirmed Tesla Semi orders and the company showed confidence in starting production in its recent earnings call. Tesla considers the business “on track to start deliveries from each location in 2021,” they had said. This also includes the Gigafactory Texas, where the Tesla Semi will be made beginning in 2021, according to the EV maker.

walmartcanada.ca, teslarati.com, accesswire.com (update PGE)