Contrary to anyone’s expectations, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk made a surprise announcement on Twitter saying that his company’s semi electric truck would start shipping by the end of this year. The model had been plagued with many bottlenecks in its development, including the infamous battery supply woes that every automobile manufacturer in the EV segment has seen suffering in recent years. This year when Tesla’s semi truck is all set to hit the streets, it would come in the 500-mile range edition.
Tesla Semi: bottlenecks before the final shoot
Tesla unveiled the Semi back in 2017. Within two years of having revealed the model, the company guided a start of production in 2019. However, the production was hit with many delays that compelled Musk to offer some commitment in the summer of 2020 by saying, “it’s time to bring Tesla Semi to volume production.” However, soon after Corona made its entry on the global platform and it carried some separate plans for the entire world.
Last summer, a report brought to notice certain progress that the company had made in the production of the heavy vehicle at its low-volume facility near Gigafactory Nevada. This was very soon followed by Tesla unveiling a small fleet of Tesla Semi electric trucks. However, the common battery supply constraints in this part of the manufacturing world ensured that the company announces shifting the launch of the car to 2022.
Given so many delays already in the making of this car, there had been a certain breach in confidence that Tesla would be able to stick to its recent commitment of delivering the first units of the vehicle in 2022. Musk’s tweet seems to offer some credence to the brand’s announcement last year. It has been speculated that Pepsico would be the first company to try the Semis on the roads, as is indicated by a 100 trucks order that the company made back in 2017 and last year.
