Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk launched the company’s Semi commercial truck on Thursday evening.
What Happened: Musk went live on Twitter for the delivery event. Musk arrived at the event in a Tesla Semi.
“We’re excited to release our first production Tesla Semi trucks,” said Musk. He said that the production of the vehicle was critical to Tesla’s mission pointing out that Class 8 trucks contributed 20% of U.S. vehicle emissions and 36% of U.S. vehicle particulate emissions.
Musk said the Semi is “as easy to drive as a Model 3” and the truck could be driven with “no training.”
Tesla said the truck would be integrated into the company’s own supply chain.” Musk added that Tesla is using the trucks “day and night” in Texas.
“Because it is an electric drive train, it recaptures the energy of motion,” said Musk on regenerative breaking technology used in the Semi.
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Why It Matters: Musk said in October that he was excited to announce the production of Tesla’s fully-electric semi truck with first deliveries to PepsiCo, Inc PEP from Dec. 1.
Musk thanked PepsiCo at the event for being “great partners,” adding that the food company’s first delivery run involved a huge cargo load of Frito Lay potato chips.
Tesla showed off the truck’s 500-mile range with a fully-loaded Semi. The drive was from Fremont, California to San Diego. A nearly 8-hour drive.
On technological breakthroughs, Musk said Tesla developed a megawatt-class charger that was immersion-cooled and would require a small cable. This will be used for Tesla’s Cybertruck as well and will be coming to superchargers next year.
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