Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk (right) speaks with Dan Priestly, Senior Manager of Tesla Semi Truck Engineering at the vehicles delivery event on December 1, 2022.
Tesla/Reuters
Tesla delivered its first electric semitrailer truck to PepsiCo on Thursday.
The delivery was made after several years of delay.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in October the company is aiming to make 50,000 Semis in North America in 2024.
Tesla on Thursday delivered its first electric semitrailer truck to PepsiCo, as the electric vehicle maker expands its offerings beyond passenger cars.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, drove a Semi to the delivery event, which was held at a factory near Reno, Nevada.
The Semi is the automaker’s all-electric, class-8 cargo trucks with a range between 300 and 500 miles on a single charge, depending on the model.
“If you’re a trucker and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it,” said Musk at the Thursday event.
Tesla’s delivery of the Semi trucks came after several years of delay. They were first unveiled in 2017 and initially slated for delivery in 2019 — but the plan delayed in part due to a shortage of parts and supply chain challenges.
Musk said at Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call in October that the electric vehicle maker is aiming to produce 50,000 Semis in North America in 2024, according to a transcript of the call. He declined to reveal the exact prices but said they would cost “much more than a passenger vehicle.”
In August 2022, Musk tweeted that Tesla would begin shipping the 500-mile Semi, and the Cyber Truck — its futuristic-looking electric pickup — by 2023.
A spokesperson for PepsiCo told Insider in October that the Semi trucks will be supporting the company’s beverages plant in Sacramento and its Frito-Lay factory in Modesto, California.
Musk did not take any questions at the end of the event, which sparked some skepticism over the vehicle’s capabilities, Reuters reported. Oliver Dixon, a senior analyst at consultancy Guidehouse told the news agency this was “Not very impressive – moving a cargo of chips (average weight per pack 52 grams) cannot in any way be said to be definitive proof of concept.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment sent outside business hours.