Elon Musk Says Tesla Semi Truck Finally in Production, Reveals Who’s Getting One First

Tesla CEO Elon Musk presents a prototype of the Tesla Semi truck at an event in Hawthorne, Calif., on Nov. 16, 2017. Veronique Dupont/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the long-awaited electric Tesla Semi truck has finally entered production.

Musk made a statement on Twitter that deliveries of the vehicle will be to Pepsi first and would begin on Dec. 1.

In a follow-up message, Musk said the electric truck would have a range of 500 miles and be “super fun to drive.”

Musk first unveiled a prototype of the Tesla Semi at an event in Hawthorne, California, in 2017, and since then, the vehicle has been in various stages of development.

Tesla initially planned to start production of the Semi in 2019, but those plans suffered repeated delays.

In January 2021, Musk said that all engineering work on the Semi had been completed, but that production was being hampered by supply-chain problems.

“The main reason we have not accelerated new products—like, for example, Tesla Semi—is that we simply don’t have enough cells for it,” Musk said during the company’s 2020 fourth-quarter earnings call.

“If we were to make the Semi right now, we could easily go into production with the Semi right now, but we would not have enough cells for it,” he added.

Tesla said in its most recent 2022 second-quarter report (pdf) that the Semi—along with the Roadster and Robotaxi—was still in development.

In late August, Tesla’s Instagram account shared footage of the Semi being driven on highways and using the company’s Megacharger.

The Tesla Semi is expected to cost $180,000, although it would qualify for a tax break of up to $40,000 under relevant provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act (pdf), which include subsidies for commercial “clean vehicles.”

Besides Pepsi, which will be the first customer to receive the Tesla Semi, other companies have placed reservations on the vehicle, including UPS and Walmart.

On the same day Musk announced the production launch, the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account on Twitter posted footage of the Semi being driven on a race track.

“It’s going to change the trucking industry forever,” the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley Twitter account said in a post.