Watch: Tesla Semi first deliveries underway
Tesla has officially launched its electric Semi trucks ahead of first customer deliveries.
Chief executive Elon Musk presented the trucks to a live audience and a live stream event today.
Food and beverage corporation PepsiCo will be the first customer to put the trucks into operation.
Pepsi plans to use the heavy EVs at its Frito-Lay plant in Modesto, California, and its beverages factory in Sacramento.
In 2017 PepsiCo placed the world’s largest pre-order for 100 of the newly unveiled electric trucks.
The company says it’s part of PepsiCo’s effort to reduce fuel costs and fleet emissions during the distribution of sodas and snacks to retailers.
Walmart Canada is another firm that has placed a large reservation for the truck and last year more than tripled its order to 130 units.
Musk previously tweeted that the Semi completed an 800-kilometre drive with more than 36 tonnes in gross vehicle weight.
The Semi is expected to reach zero to 100km/h in five seconds.
The Semi truck has faced a string of delays since its first unveiling in November 2017 and was originally expected to be in production by 2019.
However, the electric vehicle manufacturer pointed to battery cell constraints as the reason for pushing out the release date.
Musk called the Tesla Semi “a beast”.
“This thing has crazy power relative to a diesel truck,” he said.
He said the truck has three times the power of any diesel-powered heavy vehicle and it aims to tackle the problem of carbon emissions in the road transport sector.
Join the conversation