Since taking over at Twitter, Elon Musk attended his first Tesla launch yesterday. The billionaire announced a Tesla facility in Nevada, saying PepsiCo had received Tesla’s first heavy-duty Semi after waiting five long years.
Tesla stated that the Semi would be produced in 2023 and include an improved Supercharger, which employs liquid-cooling technology in its charging cable and is capable of charging the huge electric car at 1 megawatt to accommodate the Semi.
Although hundreds of Semis were pre-ordered by businesses as early as 2017, Musk omitted to address essential factors, including the Semis’ capacity, price, and production schedule. Analysts expressed their disappointment to Reuters, saying that Tesla’s failure to divulge the weight of an unloaded Semi helped them estimate driving efficiency.
Instead, Musk highlighted the benefits of the vehicle, sketching a picture of a time when fleets of Tesla long movers would beat current diesel trucks while lowering highway pollution. The Semi’s powertrain technology, which uses three motors to generate “crazy power,” as Musk put it, by activating one at highway speed and saving the other two for acceleration, seemed to interest Musk the most. The Tesla Semi, in his words, was like “an elephant running like a cheetah.”
According to Reuters, Tesla would utilize the Semi to move parts between its operations in California and Nevada.
The truck’s weight and load combined for an 81,000-pound carry over 500 miles on test runs, but nobody in attendance seemed impressed. The truck is “not very spectacular,” according to Oliver Dixon, a senior analyst at the consultancy Guidehouse, and it is still premature to call it “a definitive proof of concept.” “without vital information that Tesla omitted to disclose at its event.
When Tesla unveiled the Semi to the world for the first time in 2017, five years ago, Pepsi immediately placed an order for 100 trucks. By 2019, it was anticipated that the trucks would start transporting cargo for organizations including Pepsi, UPS, and Walmart. However, heavy-duty truck production stagnated as rival manufacturers beat Tesla to market with rival fully electric Class 8 vehicles. As a result, the only indication the public had until this week that the Semi would soon be on the road was a prototype spotted in 2018.
Pepsi received the first Tesla truck, which was now substantially delayed. However, companies are still determining when Tesla will be ready to supply more trucks. In the past, Musk had stated that 50,000 Semis would be made in North America in 2024.
However, Pepsi finally had an opportunity to test the truck this week and completed a cargo drive. In addition, a corporate driver arrived in a semi to deliver snacks to Musk’s announcement attendees.
At the unveiling, Musk also hinted at a new “robotaxi” being developed by Tesla and said the Tesla pickup truck would be powered by the same fast-charging technology powering the revamped Supercharger.
Following Musk’s discussion of a 45 percent decline in Tesla shares, all these announcements were made. In addition, Reuters reported last month that Tesla shareholders were concerned about how much time and money Musk was spending on Twitter, which could be keeping him from finishing initiatives for Tesla. This included selling billions of shares of Tesla stock.
