Elon Musk declared that shipments of the 500-mile Tesla Semi electric truck will begin this year. The Tesla Semi was unveiled in 2017, and the company had forecast that production would begin in 2019. The launch of Tesla Semi into volume production has been repeatedly postponed, but CEO Elon Musk stated that it is now time in the summer of 2020.
The development of the Tesla Semi at a low-volume facility close to the Gigafactory Nevada was made public last summer. A small new fleet of Tesla Semi electric trucks was unveiled shortly after, however Tesla later said that it has delayed the start of the program until 2022 owing to issues with battery supply.
While it appeared that Tesla was producing new electric trucks in small quantities, it wasn't clear if the company would stick to its revised schedule of giving customers their first vehicles in 2022. Musk later stated that customers shouldn't anticipate receiving new products in 2022 as Tesla concentrated on increasing Model 3 and Model Y production.
Musk made an unexpected announcement on Twitter in August that the Semi will begin deliveries this year. The CEO referred to his "Master Plan, Part Deux," in which he first broached the subject of Tesla producing an electric semitruck. Musk's use of the word shipping suggests that Tesla is referring to the delivery of electric trucks to consumers. Since 2017, the business has been receiving orders for the truck, creating a sizable backlog.
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Semis Spotted Across Country
PepsiCo and Walmart placed orders following the 2017 release of the Tesla Semi. 15 of those vehicles will be used by PepsiCo as part of an initiative to make the Frito-Lay facility in Modesto, California, an emission-free facility. Tesla installed a Megacharger station for the trucks at its Modesto site, indicating that deliveries are approaching even if PepsiCo didn't receive its Tesla Semi trucks last year.
Several Tesla Semi electric trucks have been seen being transported throughout the nation in preparation for the eagerly anticipated start of deliveries. An all-electric class 8 truck called the Tesla Semi was unveiled back in 2017. It was anticipated to arrive as soon as 2019 at the time. Years of delays meant that the vehicle program's manufacturing wasn't supposed to start until 2023. Elon Musk, though, unexpectedly revealed last month that the Tesla Semi would actually begin arriving later this year.
He didn't elaborate further on the timetable, but it appears to be approaching quickly given that multiple Tesla Semi electric trucks have been seen travelling across the US on the backs of other vehicles. Even though the electric trucks are made nearby Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada, this past weekend a Tesla Semi was spotted all the way in Kentucky and another Tesla Semi was apparently seen in Arizona at the same time, and the driver said that it was travelling to the Texas Tesla Gigafactory.
When it comes to the Tesla Semi, Tesla has declared that it will be its own first customer. It intends to make use of it internally to save money on fuel. The automaker has been operating with early prototypes previously, particularly between the Gigafactory Nevada and Fremont Factory, but it is now anticipated that it will begin deploying production units in greater quantities.
But in light of Musk's declaration, it is also anticipated that Tesla would finally ship Tesla Semi to customers who made orders up to five years ago. Reservations for Tesla trucks can be made with deposits of up to $20,000. The company is said to have thousands of reservations for the electric truck, and several major corporations, including Walmart and PepsiCo, have placed sizable orders.
Although the company has production capability set up in Nevada, the volume is very low. The car is anticipated to enter volume production at Texas' Gigafactory in 2019. Although the company hasn't revealed its intended production capacity, it is anticipated to be in the tens of thousands of vehicles annually.
