PepsiCo has placed a pre-order for 100 of Tesla's recently released Semi-Truck.  Wal-Mart, J.B. Hunt, and Sysco have also placed orders. Reuters tallies the total so far at 285 units.  Tesla was initially asking for a $5,000 reservation fee, but has since increased that to $20,000.

Pepsico plans on using the trucks for lighter snack items and fixed routes between distribution centers.  An order of 100 trucks represents about 1% of Pepsi's 10,000 strong fleet. Over 260,000 conventional semi-trucks are produced each year.

The Tesla Semi has a promised range of 500 miles with 80,000 lbs at 65 mph. Promised performance increases over a conventional diesel include the ability to maintain 65 mph up a 5% grade versus 45 mph for the typical diesel, and an unladen 0-60 time of just 5 seconds and 20 seconds with an 80,000 lb. load.

The Tesla Semi will go into production in 2019, but test mules have already been spotted in the wild.

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IMO, "recently released" implies 'in production'.

Ambitious...going to be interesting to see how this goes... 

I hope these EV semi's work for Tesla's sake, but they better have a very efficient, seriously large, liquid cooling system with several large fans for those battery packs, because they're gonna get really Hot! Even pulling 65 mph up a 5% grade or any long steep grade to the summit with 80,000+ lbs. they're going be smoking Hot at the top, if they even make it before it shuts down to prevent a fire. The Model S batteries get so hot when running on the track that they have to parking it and lay bags of ice all around the undercarriage to cool them. The Model S does have a liquid cooling system, but when pulling high amounts of energy from the batteries in a short amount of time, say on a drag strip, the car shuts down into limp mode. That would be disastrous for national trucking companies or retail giants like Pepsi and Walmart. They can't afford to miss the mark on this. 

All the more reason to containerize freight, ship by rail,  and deliver local with Semi's.  Easily done with existing technology.

20 hours ago, balthazar said:

IMO, "recently released" implies 'in production'.

Reality addicts like yourself take all of the fun out of life...quit trying to bring reason and authentic thinking into this.

Musk just figured out how to give a short term end of year bump to the stock price and clearly sold companies on this.

They can order all they want, all day long. However, given Tesla track record, when will they actually take delivery of them?

1 hour ago, Scout said:

They can order all they want, all day long. However, given Tesla track record, when will they actually take delivery of them?

On the 12th.  Of NEVER. 

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

On the 12th.  Of NEVER. 

Considering it is Tesla, maybe the best answer would be February 28th 2022 at the earliest.  

As the old adage goes, this is where the rubber meets the road.  The ball is in Telsa's court to prove they can meet the demand based upon their hype.  It's about production, Elon.  Get these rigs running. Otherwise, your your snake-oil charm will fade fast.

These companies can’t wait to put in their advertising how they use environmentally friendly Tesla trucks to ship goods.  You watch, every Fortune 500 company that ships things by truck will buy them because they want to show how sustainable their methods are.

Oh; they're going to wait, all right.

On 12/14/2017 at 5:21 PM, balthazar said:

IMO, "recently released" implies 'in production'.

Well no, we use "released" when writing most new vehicle announcements.

11 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Well no, we use "released" when writing most new vehicle announcements.

better than using 'dropped' as used in the recording industry.. 

IMO: "released" = production, "revealed" is better suited to things like concepts, which no one can get their hands on.

Like the Tesla semi, or the Tesla Roadster. Where the Model 3 falls here is open to debate.

Edited December 17, 20178 yr by balthazar