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Tesla Semi secures another order for electric trucks ahead of launch

Tesla Semi, the automaker’s electric truck, is supposed to go into production next year and now it secures another order from a major company.

As part of its sustainability report released earlier this month, Albertsons Companies, one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, announced that they ordered 10 all-electric Tesla Semi trucks to be used in its Southern California fleet.

Tom Nartker, Albertsons’ VP of Transportation, commented on the announcement in a press release:

“Advancing supply chain efficiency and sustainability is an important goal for our company. We’re excited to pilot this expansion of our transportation program with trucks that help us limit our overall carbon footprint.”

Nationwide, the company operates a fleet of over 1,400 trucks.

After Tesla revealed the pricing of its electric semi trucks last year, 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.

But Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he expects that the production version could be even more efficient with a range closer to 600 miles.

He also said that the Tesla Semi made it ‘across the country alone’ with only the Supercharger network and an extension cord.

It appeared that the vehicle was out to tour the country in order to meet with potential customers

At the time, we tried to track the Tesla Semi prototype. It drove to J.B. Hunt in Arkansas almost 2,000 miles away from its home base and then to UPS’ hub in Addison, Illinois, which is about 600 miles north from J.B. Hunt in Arkansas.

A few days later, we reported that the Tesla Semi prototype was now in Des Moines, Iowa – more than 300 miles from UPS.

Later, the electric truck prototype traveled another 580 miles or so and stopped at Tesla’s Supercharger station in Brush, Colorado.

Musk said that they learned a lot from the test program and they plan to make improvements as they bring Tesla Semi to production.

When unveiling the vehicle last year, Tesla said that they plan to bring it to market in 2019 and it hasn’t officially updated the timeline yet.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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