Tesla Semi electric trucks were spotted in numbers coming out of its pilot factory for the first time. What’s happening?
Even though Tesla Semi officially went into production in late 2022, almost two years ago, there’s still a very limited population on the roads.
Electrek first reported on Tesla’s plan to build the electric truck in low production at a pilot factory next to Gigafactory Nevada.
Sources told us that the plant had a capacity of 5 trucks per week, but it looks like Tesla has throttled that down over the last two years.
Tesla is mostly using the Tesla Semi trucks itself in its own operations, especially to move parts between Gigafactory Nevada and Fremont factory.
The automaker also delivered a few dozen Tesla Semi trucks to PepsiCo.
In the last few months, we reported on a Tesla Semi being spotted used by Martin Brower and one by food distribution giant Sysco.
We also learned that Walmart and Costco both got their hands on the Tesla Semi to test it recently, but it’s not clear if those were just temporarily loaned for testing or if they are still in the customers’ possession.
That’s why it is surprising to now see Tesla producing dozens of new Tesla Semi trucks at its pilot plant:
Tesla is currently building a new factory to build the Tesla Semi in higher volume next to the current plant.
The new factory is expected to be ready to start producing Tesla Semi trucks next year.
Electrek’s Take
Top comment by Curtis Larimer
I've come to think of this as battery arbitrage. It's clear that the market for batteries in Tesla consumer vehicles is cooling. But Tesla isn't going to reduce battery production/purchasing. Instead, they'll move their supply to other markets. We've already seen that in grid energy storage, where Tesla increased deployment over the last few months. This has little to do with increased demand in that market and everything to do with Tesla increasing output for it. They've had customers waiting for semi orders for years, but until now they could profit more by putting those batteries in cars. Now that has changed.
It’s possible that Tesla is conducting new production test runs to test processes as they finalize the design of the production lines that will be installed in the new factory.
It’s also possible that Tesla has updated the Tesla Semi based on its previous batch in operation and it is going to use these trucks as test vehicles for reservation holders ahead of fleet deliveries starting next year.
Or they could just be used in its own operations.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments