Five years after unveiling a prototype of its semi truck, Tesla has finally delivered its first batch of units. CEO Elon Musk appeared at the kickoff event at the company’s factory in Sparks, Nevada, on Thursday, where he jokingly apologized for the delay: “Sorry for the delay.”
“There’s been a lot that’s happened since then, to say the least,” he said. “We’re incredibly excited tonight to actually deliver our first production Tesla Semi Trucks.”
The Semi was first revealed in December 2017 and while production of the vehicle was scheduled for 2019, it was pushed back due to the pandemic and issues sourcing battery cells.
Tesla’s first customer to buy and use the production Semis is PepsiCo Frito Lay Inc, but it wasn’t revealed exactly how many trucks they ordered. PepsiCo had previously shared on its website that it had reserved 100 of the cars, though that order may not have been fulfilled in its entirety.
Tesla advertises a range of 300 to 500 miles per charge with a load of 82,000 lb. The truck will require an especially powerful liquid-cooled megawatt charger that’s about three times more powerful than the regular version, bringing the Semi to 70% charge within 30 minutes.
Along with boasting the potential for massive savings on fuel costs, the Semi features a unique layout with the driver’s seat and steering wheel in the center of the cab and touchscreens located on both the left and right sides of the driver.
Musk called the Semi “quiet” and said that it “will improve the quality of your air, and will improve the health of people living near freeways.”
“It looks sick,” he said of the truck. “You want to drive that. I mean, that thing looks like it came from the future.”
In other automotive news, this Road-Legal McLaren P1 GTR will set you back more than $2M USD.
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