Now that Tesla opened pre-orders in a few European markets for its new electric truck earlier this week, the first reservations from the old continent are now coming in.
The first company to jump on board is Asko, a food distribution service in Norway.
They confirmed an order of 10 Tesla Semi electric trucks.
Tore Bekken, CEO of Asko Norway, told Norway’s E24 (translated to english):
“We have an electric truck today from a Dutch company, which we have had for almost two years. So, we think that Tesla is the one who has come the furthest with the technology so far. Therefore, we choose to book ten trucks from them.”
While the company believes that Tesla’s electric trucks are the most advanced right now, Asko would like to know more about the vehicle.
Bekken added:
“We need to know more about the truck than what we do today before we conclude the order, but it has been the case with Tesla’s passenger cars as well. We are curious and excited, and we hope this will trigger other manufacturers to bet on electric trucks or hydrogen trucks in the time to come,”
The performance specs that Tesla announced for its electric semi truck last month were unbelievable for some.
For the most part, we have to take Tesla to its word that they are able to achieve them – though a transporter that participated in the Tesla Semi test program was able to confirm that most of those specs are actually real.
Bekken’s concerns are not only for the specs but also compliance to Norway and European trucking regulations.
During a presentation in the Netherlands last month, Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s Vice-President of Trucks, said that the company is currently undergoing development to adapt the Tesla Semi design to European trucking regulations.
It was believed to be why the company didn’t open reservations in Europe after launching the truck last month, but they ended up doing out of the blue earlier this week starting with Norway, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Tesla says that it plans to bring its electric semi trucks to production in 2019, but it’s not clear if the timeline is different for deliveries in Europe.
Asko’s CEO seemed optimistic:
“We do not think we will have the trucks before they start deliveries the United States. We believe deliveries could start in 2020, but we hope we can get them in 2019.”
With hundreds of trucks on order, Tesla is starting to get some pressure to deliver the vehicle on time.
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