Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Thursday that production on its extended-delayed all-electric semi truck has started out with the very first deliveries commencing in December.
The automaker released an all-electrical Class 8 truck prototype, dubbed Tesla Semi, throughout a splashy November 2017 party held in Hawthorne, California, on the grounds of the company’s design and style studio and Musk’s other business, SpaceX.
The reveal arrived a lot more than a yr just after Tesla introduced a trucks improvement program, which was steered by Jerome Guillen, a former Daimler govt who joined the enterprise in 2010. Guillen remaining Tesla in 2021 just a several months following his posture was improved from president of the company’s total automotive enterprise to a much more slender function main Tesla’s hefty trucking unit.
Tesla initially prepared to commence manufacturing the semi truck in December 2019. Nonetheless, the method experienced recurring delays.
Very last calendar year following Guillen’s departure, Tesla pushed generation of the Semi truck method to 2022 thanks to provide chain problems and the confined availability of battery cells, the firm reported through its 2nd-quarter earnings report. As of January 2021, the enterprise had concluded engineering operate on the Semi and was on monitor to start off deliveries that year. But even then Musk warned that the availability of battery cells could limit the company’s potential to produce the Semi.
The delays haven’t prevented the corporation from landing reservations, which were being $5,000 at the unveiling, from a variety of higher-profile companies, which include Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, Walmart and UPS. Musk tweeted that Pepsi, which ordered 100 trucks again in December 2017, will be the initial client to get the cars.
Deliveries to Pepsi are expected December 1, Musk explained.