Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, took to Twitter in the late evening on Thursday to make the announcement that production of the Tesla Semi Trucks, which is known as the Semi, has begun.
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
Tesla Semi Trucks
He also stated that Pepsi, who immediately after the release of the Class 8 trucks in 2017 placed an order for a hundred of them, will be among the first beneficiaries of the vehicles. The beverage company will start receiving semi supplies on December 1. Around the same time as Pepsi placed their order, Budweiser placed theirs for forty of the identical vehicles.
The Tesla factory in Austin, Texas is responsible for handling production of the Semi. In addition, Tesla manufactures its Model Y crossover at this plant, and in 2023, production of the Cybertruck pickup truck is scheduled to get underway there as well.
In the face of restricted availability of battery cells and other supply-chain challenges, Tesla decided to prioritize Model Y manufacturing in Austin and pushed back the start date for production of the Semi, which was initially scheduled to begin in 2019. However, this timetable has now been pushed again. Since then, well-known truck manufacturers such as Daimler Trucks and Volvo Trucks have already introduced electric vehicle models, including Class 8 trucks.
In May, Tesla began taking bookings for the Semi, and in August, after having requested a $20,000 deposit from customers, the company stopped accepting new reservations for the vehicle. The price of the 300-mile model was initially set at $150,000, and the price of the 500-mile model was first set at $180,000. When bookings start up again, it’s likely that Tesla will raise their prices, which is something that’s happened with a number of different electric vehicles in the past few months.
Tesla Semi
Tesla’s performance numbers for the Semi include an acceleration from 0 to 60 miles per hour in twenty seconds as well as the capability to accelerate on gradients of up to five percent. These calculations were done with the maximum gross weight of the semi-truck, which is 82,000 pounds. Three separate motors are the source of the vehicle’s power.
Tesla has not disclosed the size of the battery, but the company has stated that it is possible to charge the battery to 70 percent using one of its chargers that was created specifically for the Semi.
It is likely that Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving electronic driver-assist technologies will also be available for use in the Semi, although the company has not stated that these options will be made available. However, Tesla initially stated that there would be some kind of self-driving capability back when the truck was introduced in the year 2017.