Tesla Semi receives another large 50-truck pre-order

Tesla Semi, the automaker’s new all-electric semi truck, keeps accumulating more reservations from freight companies and fleet operators.

Now a large UAE-based environmental & waste management company announced that it placed another important order for Tesla Semi trucks.

At the World Future Energy Summit” in Abu Dhabi today, Bee’ah confirmed that it pre-ordered 50 Tesla Semi trucks – one of the biggest pre-orders to date.

Salim Al Owais, Chairman of Bee’ah, commented on the announcement:

“We are extremely pleased to turn towards Tesla for a solution that enhances our leadership of sustainable practices in the region. As a company that strives to be the best in our field, we only work with partners that we consider to be the best in theirs. Through this latest investment, we hope to demonstrate to others the value and importance of seeking out better, more viable ways of achieving our business aims, all for the greater good of our communities.”

The company says that electric trucks will add to its fleet of 1,000 trucks and they will primarily be “used for waste collection and transportation, including transportation of materials for recovery.”

Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO of Bee’ah, also commented on the announcement:

As a torchbearer for environmental responsibility, Bee’ah’s move to bring the first and largest fleet of Tesla Semi trucks to the region is a significant milestone in our operational evolution. Sustainability is at the very core of what we do, and the pursuit of this feeds into every level of our organization. That is why we have made this investment in our transportation fleet, which occurs with a view towards a larger goal – achieving the objectives of the National Agenda for UAE Vision 2021,”

Bee’ah’s order follows Tesla’s record orders of 100 electric trucks from Pepsico and 125 electric trucks from UPS.

At the unveiling event last month, Tesla unveiled two electric truck options with 300 and 500 miles of range.

After Tesla revealed the pricing of its electric semi trucks last month, we learned that the regular production versions for the 300-mile and 500-mile range versions will be $150,000 and $180,000 respectively, while the company is also listing a ‘Founders Series’ version for $200,000.

This means that Bee’ah’s order alone is worth between $7.5 million and $10 million.

The company also announced that they have purchased Tesla Powerpacks for their headquarters in Sharjah earlier this year:

“Earlier this year, the organization made a major investment with Tesla to fit the company’s world-leading Powerpack battery technology at Bee’ah’s spectacular, state-of-the-art net zero energy headquarter complex, which is currently under construction. The Tesla batteries will store solar energy to power the building, and any excess electricity generated will be fed directly into Sharjah’s main power supply grid, thereby ensuring maximum efficiency.”

Here’s an image of their new headquarters:

Bee’ah’s Tesla Semi reservation follows Tesla officially launching in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year. The automaker has since expanded in the Middle East and it signed a deal to supply 200 Model S/X vehicles with ‘fully self-driving-capability’ to Dubai’s taxi company. Uber also announced the deployment of 50 new Tesla vehicles in its Dubai fleet.

Electrek’s Take

As we have been suggesting with all the recent pre-orders a whole month after the event, it looks like there’s a snowball effect going on with Tesla Semi.

The tally of confirmed reservations is now close to 500 trucks, but that’s just from companies having publicly announced their Tesla Semi pre-orders. We think that smaller fleet operators and other companies have also quietly placed orders.

Like Bee’ah for example, they say that they placed their order “immediately after the unveiling in November”, but they are only now announcing it.

Either way, it’s clear that the demand is currently strong for the truck and possibly even increasing months after the unveiling event.