Pepsi To Receive First Shipment As Tesla Semi All-Electric Semi Truck Begins Production

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that the long-delayed all-electric semi truck is now in production, with the first deliveries starting in December.

The automaker unveiled an all-electric Class 8 truck prototype dubbed Tesla Semi during a sensational event in November 2017 staged in Hawthorne, California, on the grounds of the automaker's design studio and Musk's other company, SpaceX.

The announcement came more than a year after Tesla initiated a programme to create trucks.

Jerome Guillen, a former Daimler executive who joined the firm in 2010, oversaw the programme.

Guillen resigned from Tesla in 2021, a short time after his role was narrowed from the president of the entire company's automotive industry to that of the head of Tesla's heavy haulage division.

The semi-truck was initially scheduled to go into production by Tesla in December 2019.

However, there were numerous delays in the programme.

Due to supply chain issues and the scarcity of battery cells, Tesla delayed the Semi truck program's manufacturing last year after Guillen's departure.

The firm disclosed this during its second-quarter financial report.

Tesla had finished the Semi's engineering as of January 2021 and was on schedule to start delivering them that year.

Even still, Musk issued a warning that the company's capacity to create the Semi could be hampered by the supply of battery cells.

Despite the delays, the business was nevertheless able to get $5,000 in reservations from a number of well-known businesses, including Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, Walmart, and UPS.

Pepsi, which placed a December 2017 order for 100 trucks, will be the first customer to get the cars, Musk tweeted.

Delivery to Pepsi is anticipated on December 1, according to Musk.

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