Tesla finally delivers the first semi truck

Tesla delivered its first semi truck last night. The lucky one: PepsiCo. In 2017, the company already ordered 100 copies.

The semi has been a long time coming. Tesla boss Elon Musk announced the truck around five years ago. The planned delivery was suspended for a total of around two years.

Delay, delay and more delay

Due to several design flaws and a shortage of chips and raw materials, the Semi had a difficult start. Still, Tesla managed to keep the Semi warm among fans and car enthusiasts.

The evolution of the truck could slowly be seen thanks to attentive fans who filmed the truck at test sites, among other places. Until September, a video came out of three copies that looked very similar to a production model.

Production model of the Tesla Semi

Now the production model is officially shown and Elon Musk confirms the numbers of the top model. For example, the brand states that you can drive 500 miles (approx. 800 kilometers) with the 500-mile variant. During a test drive in America – probably under ideal conditions – where the 1000 kWh battery pack was 97 percent charged, 4 percent of the battery was still left after 804 kilometers. The expectation car was fully loaded.

In order to quickly recharge the gigantic battery pack, charging technology is used that reaches up to 1 megawatt. This is possible with so-called “Tesla Megachargers”.

The Semi’s gigantic battery pack is connected to three electric motors, just like the Tesla Model S and X Plaid. One motor is used to drive as efficiently as possible on the highway, the other two power sources provide the torque with which the semi has to pull the load.

Elon Musk isn’t revealing everything about the Tesla Semi Truck just yet

Notably, Elon Musk says you can do 500 miles with a fully loaded truck: 81,000 pounds (36,741 kg), but it’s unclear how much the truck itself weighs. In the Netherlands, a truck can weigh a maximum of 50,000 kilograms.

So how much you are allowed to load – not unimportant information for a transport company – is still unclear. Various fans and media estimate that the Tesla Semi weighs around 35,000 pounds (15,876 kilograms).

In addition to the weight, Elon Musk is also silent on the price of the Tesla Semi. A price of 200,000 US dollars was previously mentioned.

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