Tesla Semi: Walmart orders 15 new electric trucks, several other companies jump on board too

Tesla’s new electric semi truck is already finding buyers. Walmart, along with several other companies, confirmed having ordered Tesla Semi trucks following the unveiling yesterday.

Over the last few days leading up to the event, we have floated the idea of Walmart being a perfect buyer for Tesla’s new electric truck and sure enough, the company jumped on the opportunity and announced that it ordered 15 new Tesla trucks.

The US’ biggest retailer wrote in a statement earlier today:

“We believe we can learn how this technology performs within our supply chain, as well as how it could help us meet some of our long-term sustainability goals, such as lowering emissions,”

Walmart has been working on its trucks in order to lower emission and costs. A few years back, it unveiled prototypes of hybrid and super aerodynamic trucks, but now the company seems impressed by Tesla’s effort in the segment enough to place an order.

They say that they will use 5 of those trucks in the US and 10 more in Canada.

Freight company J.B. Hunt also confirmed plan to buy Tesla Semi trucks today:

 “J.B. Hunt is the first mover, particularly with regard to Tesla, but we expect other carriers to follow as electric tractor viability becomes proven.”

Several more companies have also placed unannounced orders.

Update: Canada’s grocery giant Loblaws confirmed an order of 25 Tesla Semi trucks. More are coming too.

Electrek’s Take

This is not exactly surprising considering everything Tesla announced last night blew virtually all expectations – including Electrek’s intentionally high expectations.

At the event, several fleet operators were present and some of them had already placed reservations for the Tesla Semi. Those who did had special access to the big rigs and even got to test drive them.

We talked to a few of those industry people and they seemed just as impressed as all the Tesla owners at the event.

As we reported ahead of the launch, while the specs and features of the truck are impressive, the economics are what really matter for the industry. While Tesla didn’t release as much information as we would have liked, it’s apparently still enough to convince a lot of customers to reserve the new vehicle.