Five years ago, Elon Musk officially revealed his Semi after a long time., Tesla’s electrified tractor trailer, the company delivered its first official production vehicle to Pepsi on Thursday during its “Semi Delivery Event” held at Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory. The total number of vehicles ordered by the beverage manufacturer is 100.
The Tesla Semi was first shown in 2017 and originally priced at $150,000 for the 300-mile and $5000-mile versions. Although these prices are considerably higher than what a standard diesel taxi costs, Tesla estimates its vehicles can run 20 percent more efficiently (2kWh per miles, Musk announced Thursday) and can save as much as $250,000 over its one-million-mile lifespan.
Each rig is “designed like a bullet,” Musk said at the vehicle’s unveiling, and would come equipped with a massive 1MW battery pack. The vehicle can reportedly achieve a 0-60 time of 20 seconds. This is remarkable considering that the vehicles can tow up to 80,000 pounds per hour. It also has a 30 minute charge time for 80% to full. Semis also have Enhanced Autopilot capabilities. They are equipped with jackknife mitigation systems, blind spot sensors, and data-logging to assist in fleet management.
Musk claimed that delivery would begin in 2019, two years after the opening of reservations in 2017. Deliveries would begin in 2019 and 2020, Musk stated. Tesla had officially pushed the delivery date back for 2021He cited production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and problems in supply chains. However, just two months after that, in May of 2020, Musk sent a company-wide email reading, “It’s time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production. It’s been in limited production so far, which has allowed us to improve many aspects of the design,” as seen by CNBC. In the same email he confirmed that production would take place in Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory.
It was July 20, 2021 when the delivery date was extended. This time, it was 2022. The contributing factors were the global processor shortage and the limited capacity of the battery manufacturing facility for the new 4680 style cell batteries due to pandemics.
“We believe we remain on track to build our first Model Y vehicles in Berlin and Austin in 2021,” Musk said during the company’s Q2, 2021 investor call. “The pace of the respective production ramps will be influenced by the successful introduction of many new product and manufacturing technologies, ongoing supply-chain-related challenges and regional permitting.”
“To better focus on these factories, and due to the limited availability of battery cells and global supply chain challenges, we have shifted the launch of the Semi truck program to 2022,” he continued. In May this year, Tesla began accepting reservations for $20,000 again. Musk stated, “And first deliveries are now,” before inviting Kirk Tanner, CEO PepsiCo North America, and Steven Williams to the stage for handshakes and high fives.
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