Customers may be able to buy the Tesla Semi e-truck in early 2026, the US EV pure play has revealed.
“Our first vehicles are planned for late 2025 with external customers starting in 2026,” says the firm’s vice-president, vehicle engineering Lars Moravy.
Sign up for EV inFocus
EV inFocus: Hard news for the corporate e-mobility sector
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Tesla has begun construction of a factory to make Semis in Reno, NV. Now it is “finalising the engineering of the Semi to enable a super cost-effective high-volume production”, Moravy says, based on learnings from both a pilot fleet operated by Tesla and that of test customer Pepsi Co. The Pepsi fleet is “expanding marginally this year”.
A commercially available Semi has been long-awaited, given it was first mentioned way back in 2016 and a prototype concept was unveiled in late 2017 with production targeted for 2019. While Tesla said it had begun testing the Semi as early as 2018, it was not until late 2022 that Pepsi got its hands on a first truck.
And anticipation has been building since testing in the middle of last year showed that the Semi, while not quite able to match Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s most extravagant claims on range, had fared well in a demonstration of electric freight vehicle performance organised by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency and fleet tracking company Geotab.
Peter boasts 20+ years’ experience in energy/commodity journalism & analysis.
He is convinced the next few decades will be all about energy transition. Insider Focus is a front-row seat for the ride.
