Tesla CEO Elon Musk begins deliveries of the company’s heavy-duty truck, the Semi, at the Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.
Tesla Corporation
Tesla CEO Elon Musk began deliveries of some of the company’s first production Semi trucks on Thursday, speaking on stage at the company’s factory in Sparks, Nevada, with Dan Priestly, senior director The company’s high in Semi truck engineering.
Like CNBC previous report, Tesla set up lines and started Semi production outside of Reno this year at a site where it primarily produces the battery cells, actuators, and battery packs that power its cars. Musk and Tesla did not say how many Semifinals they are delivering on Thursday.
Tesla originally introduced the Semi design in December 2017. Production was halted due to the Covid pandemic and battery supply problems, among other reasons.
During the delivery kickoff event, Musk briefly alluded to the chaos of the past five years and quipped: “Sorry for the delay.”
After that, he thanked and handed the mic to the representative from PepsiCo Frito Laywas the first Tesla customer to receive and use production Semi trucks.
A key difference between Tesla’s Class 8 product and other heavy-duty trucks is the position of the steering wheel and driver’s seat. Instead of using the left (or right in Europe), Tesla designed the Semi with a steering wheel in the center of the cabin with touchscreens positioned on both sides of the driver.
While the Tesla Semi was under development, other all-electric heavy-duty trucks hit the market.
VolvoRenault trucks owned and daimler produced and delivered electric heavy-duty trucks to customers before Tesla Even besieged Nicholas — whose founder was deposed and sentenced cheating in recent months — started battery truck production in Steps are.
But Tesla boasts a number of high-tech features not found elsewhere, including a new fast-charging system and a battery with a greater range than its competitors. The DC fast charging system delivers up to 1MW of power and uses a water-based coolant to ensure it’s safe to deliver that power. Tesla says the Semi can travel 500 miles on a single charge when fully charged.
The new fast-charging technology will eventually be installed at Tesla SuperCharging stations and used to power Cybertrucks, the consumer pickup trucks Tesla is planning, Musk revealed. The company plans to mass produce heavy-duty pickups with sharp edges at its new plant in Austin, Texas.
Back to form
The Tesla Semi event could help appease fans who are worried about his commitment and focus on the electric vehicle business.
Recently, Musk has taken on new responsibilities as the owner and CEO of Twitter, the social network giant, which he acquired in a leveraged acquisition for $44 billion last year. October. He sold some of his sizable Tesla shares to finance that deal. Since taking over Twitter, he has been embroiled in many conflict and argumentative around that platform.
Musk returned to form on Thursday, speaking to Tesla’s environmental mission and the company’s vehicle technology.
There are about 15 million passenger vehicles and about 200,000 heavy trucks in the US, he said. “This may seem like a small percentage, but pickup trucks account for a large portion of the harmful emissions caused by vehicles due to their size, weight and the fact that they are driven all the time,” he said. day and night.
Those emissions can seriously affect the health of people living near warehouses, harbors, and other roads with a lot of trucking.
According to the American Lung Association’s air quality and transportation study, medium and heavy-duty vehicles (such as delivery vans, short- and long-haul trucks) make up about 6% of the fleet. vehicles on the road in the United States as of 2020. These vehicles generate an overwhelming amount of pollution, including 59% of ozone and particulate-forming nitrous oxide emissions, and 26% of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.
Musk said that Semi not only helps fight climate change, but “It’s quiet, will improve your air quality, and will improve the health of people living near highways.”
The same can be said for other heavy-duty electric trucks that have replaced diesel-powered trucks.
Musk and other executives did not discuss Tesla’s driver assistance systems, marketed as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, at the Semi delivery event. In 2017, when Musk launched the Semi, he touted a driverless truck future.
They also did not discuss how many trucks they plan to produce next year, nor how they will have more batteries and raw materials to make them.
Shares in Elon Musk’s auto business closed flat ahead of the event, at $194.70, and were little changed in after-hours trading.
See Full delivery event here.
