Carrying battery packs from the Gigafactory
Tesla doesn’t anticipate it will begin production on the new Semi until 2019. In the meantime, the automaker is raking in commercial customers and putting Semi test trucks to work. On Instagram this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a photo of two Semis making their first production cargo run.
The trucks carried battery packs from the Gigafactory in Nevada to Tesla’s car plant in Fremont, California. On major freeways, the trip is about 260-270 miles, which should be a manageable distance for the Semi. Tesla will offer a Semi with a range of 300 miles, and a more expensive version is said to travel 500 miles on a single charge at max weight while going 60 mph.
The Tesla Semi can hit 0-60 mph in 5 seconds when it’s unloaded, or 20 seconds while towing. The Class 8 electric truck comes equipped with four electric motors sourced from the Model 3, one for each rear wheel. The drivetrain is guaranteed for 1 million miles. At one of Tesla’s solar-powered Megachargers, the Semi is able to regain 400 miles of charge back in 30 minutes.
Tesla has already secured reservations from a number of big players, including Walmart, Anheuser-Busch, UPS, and PepsiCo. Granted, the pre-orders are relatively small, but they point to a widespread interest in fully electric trucks for various kinds of fleet operations.
Source: Elon Musk via Instagram
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