Elon Musk announced Tesla's first semi truck to be delivered to Pepsi on December 1.

Elon Musk tweeted that the company would begin Semi Truck deliveries to Pepsi Co starting December this year, ending a long period of waiting.

 

By: Ameya Paleja

Tesla Semi truck                                                 Tesla 

The long wait for Tesla's Semi Trucks may have finally come to an end after CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company would begin deliveries to Pepsi Co starting December this year.

Tesla and its investors must be hopeful that the Semi Truck will herald a new age in electric trucking just as the company's sedans did for the passenger vehicle segment. Owning a Tesla has been a matter of pride for many who took the plunge into electric vehicles way before governments could even think of electric vehicle sale mandates.

Since its unveiling in 2017, Tesla has been calling the Semi the future of trucking and has promised a whole new electrically powered beast. Here's what Semi owners can expect with this fully electric truck

What Tesla offers with the Semi

The Tesla Semi is equipped with three independent motors that provide instant torque at any speed, which can help truckers keep pace with and merge safely with highway traffic. Even with a full load, Tesla promises a 0-60 mph in just 20 seconds and highway-level speeds even when the roads have steep grades.

A Tesla Semi offers a central seating position for drivers giving them better visibility. It has paired electronic sensors with motor and brake controls to deliver better traction control and stability in all conditions.

The most important offering from Tesla is the electric truck range that even Musk took special care to mention in a separate tweet.

500-mile range & super fun to drive

The company highlights how combination trucks account for 18 percent of the vehicle emissions in the U.S.even though it does not detail how Semi will change this. Nevertheless, the Semi has been promised a range of 500 miles (805 km) on a single charge.

The company webpage also claims that the truck can recover 70 percent of the charge in 30 minutes when using its Semi chargers. In October last year, Interesting Engineering reported that Tesla had begun the work to install these chargers. It has taken a year for the CEO to confirm that the Semi Truck is finally being rolled out.

How many trucks can Tesla produce?

Tesla also highlights the low cost of ownership of its electric trucks, which it claims will be approximately 2.5 times cheaper to refuel when compared to diesel. This has been estimated to provide fuel savings of up to $200,000 within the company's first three years of ownership.

This is a little over the price of the truck itself, which is expected to cost about $180,000 if we do not consider the federal government's subsidies under its subsidy program. However, all this discussion is moot if we do not know how many trucks Tesla is actually rolling out.

Back in 2017, when Elon Musk unveiled the Semi, Reuters reported that the production was slated for 2019. Musk's over-ambitious deadlines are well known, as interested owners have also seen with the Cybertruck. Still, the chip shortages over the past couple of years have also contributed to the delays. Earlier this year, Musk was looking at 2023 as the year the Semi would roll out.

Now, he is pushing for a December 2022 rollout. Pepsi Co had reserved 100 Semis in 2017 in a bid to reduce its emissions and transportation costs. So, it is likely that the scores of Tesla Semis will head to the multinational company before individual owners get their hands on one.