Tesla’s electric truck, the Semi, doesn’t rush things. It has not yet appeared on a large scale, although many people would like to see it on public roads. PepsiCo, as the main customer of semi trucks, has been able to capitalize on the trucks manufactured thus far. When the truck was introduced, the soft drink manufacturer cited demand for the Tesla Semi in a very high number of units. But even though December 1 is the big day in Tesla’s life, when Elon Musk delivered the first few Tesla Semi trucks to PepsiCo, Musk’s team still owes Pepsi a lot of electric semi trucks. So far, we don’t know exactly how many Semis Tesla has produced and delivered to Pepsi, because Tesla is doing its job quite quietly.
Based on this, it can be guessed that Tesla does not plan (yet) a large number of units in connection with production, which, by the way, takes place in the Giga Nevada region, in a separate factory. Tesla began assembling its trucks here at the end of 2022, after several years of delay. Shortly after the start of production, Tesla announced the expansion of its Gigafactory in Nevada to increase the volume of semi-assembly, but this has not yet happened.
But how is the Tesla Semi doing now? How much has been produced and what can we expect, and how close is this truck? Well, popular host Jay Leno got the great opportunity to check out the truck and ask some questions from the most knowledgeable people possible. Franz von Holzhausen (Tesla’s head of design) and Dan Priestley (Tesla Semi’s head of engineering) were in attendance and in the video below they tried out the truck together and of course discussed the details.
One of the most important lines in the video above was when Priestley confirmed that Tesla Semi trucks have long since replaced their diesel counterparts on the route Tesla takes to transport batteries from the Gigafactory in Nevada to the Fremont factory. This is a stretch of approximately 420 kilometers that the semi truck can easily cover with the same payload, proving that electric trucks can replace their diesel counterparts.
In terms of drivetrain, the Semi gets a Cybertruck inverter and uses the carbon-coated motors of the latest Model S and Model Power and torque are present but mentioned “downregulation” It protects trucks from unnecessary loads, thus ensuring the longest possible service life.
Regarding the exterior, Franz said Tesla took inspiration from Japanese high-speed trains when designing the Semi version, and sleeper cab versions will also be available soon, once the Megacharger network is widespread enough to allow the truck and its driver to move forward for a longer period. Trips. In terms of production volume, approximately 70 semi-finals are known to have been completed so far.
