Tesla Inc. delivered its first Tesla Semi electric semi trucks to PepsiCo in a delivery ceremony at its Nevada mega-factory today.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk drove the Tesla Semi onto the scene right at the start of the event. He also laughed at the fact that it had been five years since the Tesla Semi was delivered.
The Tesla Semi will be the first new model that Tesla will deliver to customers after the Model Y. The model was originally scheduled to go into production by 2019, but has been delayed several times due to battery limitations.
Elon Musk said the Semi will have a range of 500 miles (about 805 kilometers) and will be “super fun to drive. Elon Musk later added that a future version of the Semi could have a range of 621 miles (about 1,000 kilometers).
The Tesla Semi electric truck was originally unveiled in November 2017. The specifications released at the time showed that the vehicle could reach 60 mph (about 96.56 km/h) in 20 seconds with a full load. And it can maintain “freeway-level speed” even on steep hills. In addition, Tesla says the car is capable of completing 70 percent of its charge in 30 minutes.
The vehicle was reportedly ordered by numerous companies shortly after its debut in 2017, including 100 by PepsiCo, 130 by Walmart Canada, 40 by American beer brewing company Anheuser-Busch and 15 by Fidori, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Tesla initially planned to start delivering the Semi in 2019, but that has been delayed for several years due to parts shortages and other reasons.
