We’ve been waiting for years for the all-electric Tesla Semi to arrive.
All the way back in 2017, Tesla first announced its Class 8 heavy hauler, but now it may (finally) be a reality. At least, Electrek reports the all-electric rig with an 80,000-pound towing capacity is nearly ready to kick off production, according to sources familiar with the matter.
According to that report, drive axle production at the company’s Nevada Gigafactory is nearly ready. The general assembly line is also ready to boot up production as it finishes its final debugging steps. Once the last steps are complete, Electrek reports Tesla’s aim is to produce five trucks per week by the end of this year. Naturally, in light of the original 2019 production date slipping to 2020 then 2021, it’s worth keeping an eye on the EV manufacturer to see if they make this latest target.
That said, the trucking industry may be in for a seismic shift once the Tesla Semi actually hits the roads with commercial operators. Tesla plans to launch the truck in two configurations — either a $150,000 model with a 300-mile range, or a $180,000 model with a 500-mile range. The range claims at each level have yet to be independently verified, but providing that sort of hauling range with advanced Supercharger capability may drastically cut a fleet’s running costs over the trucks’ time in service.
Are you excited to see the Tesla Semi actually go into production? We’ve been awaiting more details on the truck since November, when we last reported on examples out in the wild. That time, a couple different trucks were driving around Tesla’s warehouse in Hayward, California.
H/T to Fred Lambert at Electrek for his reporting.
