Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk on Thursday delivered the company's first battery-powered heavy-duty truck, dubbed "Semi," that was built to tackle long hauls with the handling of a sporty sedan to PepsiCo without offering updated forecasts for the truck's pricing, production plans or how much cargo it could haul.
Musk, who appeared onstage at an event at Tesla's Nevada plant, said the truck would reduce highway emissions, outperform existing diesel models on power and safety and spin-off a fast-charging technology Tesla would use in its upcoming Cybertruck pickup.
"That thing looks like it came from the future," Musk said while handing over the keys to PepsiCo executives.
With its sleek design, the Semi has been highly anticipated since Musk unveiled a prototype in 2017, but the launch of full-scale production was delayed well past the initial 2019 expectation.
"The sheer amount of drama between five years ago and now is insane," Musk told a small audience invited to the factory for an event marking the occasion.
"A lot has happened in the world. But, here we are. It's real."
"If you're a trucker and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it," Musk said, noting that it was five years since Tesla had announced it was developing the all-electric truck. Still, industry experts remain skeptical that battery electric trucks can take the strain of hauling hefty loads for hundreds of miles economically.
At Musk's first Tesla reveal since taking over Twitter – an acquisition some investors worry has become a distraction – the company did not announce pricing for the Semi, provide details on variants of the truck it had initially projected or supply a forecast for deliveries to PepsiCo or other customers. Tesla said it would begin using the Semi to ship parts to its plant in Fremont, California.
In 2017, Tesla had said the 300-mile range version of the Semi would cost $150,000, and the 500-mile version $180,000, but Tesla's passenger electric vehicle prices have increased sharply since then.
Robyn Denholm, chair of Tesla, recently said the automaker might produce 100 Semis this year. Musk has said Tesla would aim to produce 50,000 of the trucks in 2024.
PepsiCo, which completed its first cargo run with the Tesla truck to deliver snacks for those attending the Nevada launch event, had ordered 100 trucks in 2017.
In the meantime, other manufacturers have entered the market, from traditional truck makers such as Daimler, Volvo and China's BYD, to startups like U.S. company Nikola.
The competition has also begun to roll out their deliveries, and have many orders of their own waiting to fill.
However, the truck that "the market has been waiting for ... is the one from Tesla," says Dave Mullaney, a transportation specialist with sustainability think tank RMI.
Legacy manufacturers have primarily converted their diesel-designed trucks to electric.
Tesla's Semi, on the other hand, "was designed to be electric from the very first design," says Mullaney.
If the vehicle lives up to expectations, "it's going to be a huge difference," he adds.
Musk reiterated the claim Thursday that a Semi had driven 500 miles (800 kilometers) with a total weight of nearly 82,000 pounds (more than 37 metric tons).
The range of electric vehicles currently on offer is only between 250 to 300 miles.
"You have all the power you need to get the job done," Musk said of the Tesla Semi.
"This is a game changer."
The use of electric light duty vehicles for short-haul deliveries has been steadily growing, but new regulations are pushing manufacturers and transporters to speed up the transition and build out long-haul capabilities.
The most populous U.S. state, California, has passed a law phasing out combustion engine trucks, which has since been followed by other states.
The European Union is also expected to debate similar standards in the coming months.
And on the PR front, companies are also facing pressure to take more environmentally conscious actions.
They "want to be on the right side of history," says Marie Cheron of the Europe-based association Transport & Environment.
Those who do not commit to a decarbonization strategy, some of whom say they are waiting for technologies to improve, "are falling behind," she says.
While making up a scant portion of vehicles on the road, diesel-powered semi trucks account for about a fifth of climate-harming emissions spewed by traffic, according to Musk.
"So from a health standpoint, particularly in cities, this is a huge impact," Musk said of the shift to electric semis.
Mike Roeth, director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, says that another motivation to transition is that drivers who have been able to test them, "love the electric trucks a lot."
"They're very quiet, they don't have the smells of the exhaust, and they are comfortable to drive."
For the adoption of electric trucks to accelerate, their range must truly live up to promises and batteries ideally would shrink, several analysts told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The charging infrastructure must also be built out to handle multiple trucks powering up simultaneously and have storage capacity to work during power outages.
The biggest factor, however, will be the price. The Semi price was not disclosed at the Tesla event.
RMI's Mullaney says that an electric truck currently costs about 70% more to buy than a diesel truck, but in terms of fuel and maintenance, it's cheaper.
With the first delivery accomplished, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives says that Tesla must now "prove they can produce at scale, they need to execute."
