Tesla Semi ships at last, remains a bit of a mystery horse

At a special event called Tesla Delivery Day, the electric car manufacturer confirmed the delivery of the first batch of its Semi trucks to PepsiCo. Elon Musk held a small speech during the celebration, but did not mention anything new about the truck.

Speaking at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada, Musk said the electric semi would surpass all modern competition running on IC engines in terms of both power and safety, as well as contribute substantially to the reduction of the carbon footprint. He neglected to mention how many units the company planned to make in the coming months or years, what exact powertrain specifications the Semi has, or how much it ended up costing.

PepsiCo became the first buyer to receive a batch of 100 Semis after five years of patient waiting. Among other things, Musk announced that the Tesla factory in California would now make active use of a number of Semi trucks on its premises and beyond.

In earlier news, Musk confirmed that the truck could run 500 miles (805 kilometers) on a single charge while fully loaded. This long-range spec allegedly costs $180,000, while a shorter-range alternative comes in at $150,000. The important thing to note is that both prices are quoted by Reuters from the year of announcement – 2017. The rest of the Tesla EV lineup has grown in price considerably since then, so the same probably applies to the Semi as well. At any rate, we cannot say how much it costs until an official announcement is made.