Tesla CEO Elon Musk will begin delivering the company’s heavy truck, the Semi, at the Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.
Tesla Inc.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who started delivering the company’s first few semi trucks on Thursday, spoke with Dan Priestly, the company’s senior manager of semi truck engineering, on stage at the company’s factory in Sparks, Nevada. did.
As CNBC previously reported, Tesla set up a line outside Reno this year to begin production of the Semi at a site that primarily makes the battery cells, drive units and battery packs that power the car. Musk and Tesla did not disclose how many Semis they have delivered on Thursday.
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Tesla originally showed off the semi-design in December 2017. Among other things, the Covid pandemic and battery cell supply issues have delayed production.
At the delivery’s kickoff event, Musk briefly alluded to the turmoil of the past five years, joking, “Sorry I’m late.”
He thanked me later and handed the microphone to the representative. Pepsico Frito LayThis is Tesla’s first customer to receive and use semi-truck production.
One of the major differences between Tesla’s Class 8 products and other heavy-duty trucks is the position of the steering wheel and cab. Rather than using the left side (or right side in Europe), Tesla designed the Semi with the steering wheel in the middle of the cab and the touchscreen on either side of the driver.
During the development of the Tesla Semi, other fully electric heavy-duty trucks entered the market.
volvo-Renault Trucks owned and Daimler Built electric heavy trucks and delivered them to customers before Tesla was in trouble Nicola — Its founder, ousted and convicted of fraud in recent months, began producing battery-electric trucks in March.
But Tesla boasts some high-tech features not available elsewhere, such as a new fast-charging system and a battery with longer range than its competitors. The DC fast charging system delivers up to 1MW and employs a water-based coolant to safely deliver that power. Tesla says the Semi can go 500 miles on a full charge.
The new fast-charging technology will eventually be installed in Tesla’s supercharging stations and used to power Tesla’s planned consumer pickup truck, the Cybertruck, Musk said. clarified. The company plans to mass-produce sharp-edged heavy pickups at its new plant in Austin, Texas.
return to form
The Tesla Semi event may reassure fans worried about his commitment and focus on the electric car business.
Musk recently assumed new responsibilities as the owner and CEO of Twitter, the social media giant that it acquired in a $44 billion leveraged buyout in October. He sold a portion of his sizeable Tesla stock to finance his deal. Since taking over Twitter, he has been embroiled in multiple conflicts and controversies surrounding the platform.
Musk returned to form on Thursday to talk about Tesla’s environmental mission and the company’s vehicle technology.
He said there are 15 million passenger cars in the US and about 200,000 heavy trucks. “It seems like a small percentage,” he said, but semi-trucks make up the majority of harmful vehicle emissions due to their size, weight and the fact that they’re driven around the clock.
These emissions can have severe health effects for people living near warehouses, ports, and other roads with a lot of trucking activity.
As of 2020, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (such as delivery vans, short and long-haul trucks) will make up about 6% of on-road vehicles in the United States, according to the American Lung Association Transportation and Air Quality Study. increase. These vehicles generate an enormous amount of pollution, including 59% of emissions of nitrogen oxides that form ozone and particles, and 26% of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.
Musk said cicadas not only help fight climate change, but are “quieter, improve air quality, and improve the health of those who live near highways.”
The same is true for other electric heavy-duty trucks that will replace diesel trucks.
Musk and other executives didn’t discuss Tesla’s driver assistance systems (marketed as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability) at the semi-delivery event. When his Musk debuted his Semi in 2017, he touted the future of driverless trucks.
Nor did it say how many trucks it plans to produce next year or how it will get additional battery cells and raw materials to produce them.
Shares of Elon Musk’s auto business closed flat at $194.70 before the event and were flat in after-hours trading.
See the full delivery event here.
