Musk announces the start of Semi production
Elon Musk has now announced the start of production of the Tesla Semi on Twitter. The first examples of the heavy-duty electric truck are to be handed over to Pepsi on 1 December. Not much has been revealed about the trucks so far.
In August just passed, Musk confirmed that the first Semi would be delivered this year – and as he stated at the time, this would include in the version with a larger battery for up to 800 kilometres of range.
Musk repeated that the heavy-duty electric truck for Pepsi is indeed the 500-mile version in his tweet on the planned start of deliveries. the Tesla CEO did not specify exactly how many vehicles will be handed over to the US food company on 1 December or the rest of the month. The unit numbers remain unclear.
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
Beyond the current tweet, there are no further details about the production model and its technical data. The exact drive configuration, charging power and payload of the Class 8 truck has, therefore, not yet been confirmed. Also open is whether Tesla will go to an 800-volt system or not, as has been hinted at in the meantime.
Since no information has been made available to say that the planned series production line for the Semi is in operation at Giga Texas in Austin, the vehicles for Pepsi will probably still come from the pilot plant in Nevada. According to Electrek, Tesla has set up a small truck production line in a new building near Gigafactory 1 in Reno – for five vehicles per week.
The launch customer Pepsi is as prepared as it can be for the vehicles – after all, it has been waiting for the Semi since the initially announced production-start in 2019, and the first delays to production start were announced soon after. PepsiCo had already ordered 100 units after the order launch in December 2017. This year, four Megachargers were installed on a Californian factory site by FritoLay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo.
Musk has been big on talk about vehicles beyond the private mobility market, famously denouncing hydrogen fuel cells as “fool cells,” which are now clearly doing well in the commercial vehicle sector. Meanwhile, the German company Quantron recently announced a hydrogen fuel cell truck with a 1500-kilometre range. Although a pioneer when it comes to the mass car market, Tesla is not only behind the 8-ball in the commercial vehicle sector but also in the pick-up market. While few details have emerged on the production of his Cybertruck, Ford’s F-150 is exceeding expectations with production as the company is having trouble keeping up with demand. While the Semi was announced in 2019, Volvo Trucks has since brought out a whole palette of electric commercial vehicles to market, with many other truck makers keeping them company in this sector.
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