Tesla Semi will deliver beer – Budweiser orders 40 electric trucks

The list of companies placing orders for Tesla Semi electric trucks keeps growing weeks after the unveiling event last month.

Now Anheuser-Busch, the brewer behind Budweiser, announced that it ordered 40 Tesla Semi trucks.

The brewer says that it will include the electric trucks in its distribution network as part of its commitment to reduce its operational carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2025.

Considering the size of their distribution network, they say that it would be the equivalent of removing nearly 500,000 cars from the road globally each year.

James Sembrot, Senior Director of Logistics Strategy, commented on the announcement:

“At Anheuser-Busch, we are constantly seeking new ways to make our supply chain more sustainable, efficient, and innovative. This investment in Tesla semi-trucks helps us achieve these goals while improving road safety and lowering our environmental impact.”

Tesla Semi is actually only one part of Anheuser-Busch’s effort to modernize its fleet. They also confirmed orders from Nikola Motors for their battery/fuel cell hydrogen trucks and Uber’s Otto autonomous trucks.

Last year, Uber’s Otto completed its first shipment by self-driving truck with an autonomous beer run with Budweiser.

Sembrot added:

“We can’t wait to get these trucks on the road, and keep leading our industry forward to a greener, smarter future in partnership with some of the world’s most innovative companies. The transportation industry is evolving fast, and we’re really excited to play a leadership role in driving this evolution by integrating these new technologies across our network.”

This order is one of Tesla’s biggest electric orders yet.

Last week, DHL confirmed an order of 10 trucks – bringing our tally to just over 200 Tesla Semi trucks.

Tesla first started taking reservations with a $5,000 deposit per truck, but has changed the listed deposit price last month to $20,000 for a “base reservation” of the production version and the full $200,000 for the “Founders Series” truck.

Those are just for orders from customers. Tesla also announced that it will be its own first electric semi truck customer with a cargo route between Fremont and Gigafactory 1.

In California alone, Tesla operates a fleet of over 100 trucks and it will be looking to replace those with its own once the new vehicle enters production in 2019.