Elon Musk announces Tesla Semi production start date

After five years of delays the Tesla Semi is set to enter the market.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk earlier this week announced that the all-electric class 8 truck would commence production with PepsiCo receiving the first deliveries 1 December.

A Megacharger station was installed at PepsiCo’s Modesto facility last year leading to speculation that it would be the first company to take delivery of the new electric truck.

The much-hyped truck, first unveiled in 2017, has undergone myriad disruptions, including recent delays in the wake of global microchip and componentry shortages that have limited production capability of the lithium-ion 4680 battery cell.

In September Tesla had revised its application for Giga Texas with room for a 500,000 square foot expansion of the automaker’s electric vehicle production factory located outside of Austin, where it plans to move to higher volume production of the Semi and Cybertruck, its battery-powered pickup.

Musk said the Semi “had a 500-mile range and was super fun to drive.”

No other updates were provided.

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