On Thursday, amid the Twitter fiasco, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the start of production of the highly anticipated Semi truck.
While it may seem like something to get excited about, the Tesla Semi truck will only be delivered to Pepsi in December, the Semi truck’s only buyer.
Statement
In a statement on Friday, Pepsi said the trucks will be making their way to the Frito-Lay plant in Modesto, California, and the Pepsi beverage plant in Sacramento.
Speaking about the company’s sustainability efforts, PepsiCo spokesperson Andrea Foote said:
“We are looking forward to this next step in our PepsiCo Positive journey and will provide more details once we have taken delivery.”
However, neither Musk nor Pepsi indicated how many trucks would be delivered to the factories.
Production
In November 2017, Tesla made the first revelation about the Semi truck, announcing that production would begin in 2019.
Many companies claim to have made reservations, including Anheuser-Busch, City Furniture, FedEx, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, and Walmart, just to name a few.
For a company like Tesla, production delays are inevitable.
Cybertruck production was announced for 2021, but was then moved to the next year.
Meanwhile, the second-generation Tesla Roadster, announced at the same event as the Semi, will go into production in 2020.
Instead, it’s been pushed back further, with 2023 being the earliest date.
The Semi
On Thursday, Elon Musk said the Semi would have a range of 500 miles.
Electric trucks are suitable for certain journeys.
However, the heavy weight of trucks compared to diesel and fuel cell trucks could force companies to forego heavy loads.
The announcement coincided with news of Musk’s renewed interest in buying Twitter for its initial $44 billion bid on Tuesday.
Tesla stock and Twitter
In September, Musk tried to end the deal, claiming the social media platform had violated their deal.
Tesla’s CEO accused Twitter of misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform.
In 2022, Elon Musk sold Tesla shares worth more than $ 15 billion, but it’s unclear whether he has enough liquid funds to complete the deal for Twitter.
Although he has received debt and equity financing commitments, Musk may need to sell additional Tesla stock to finance the purchase.
His other options include selling SpaceX stock, raising money from other investors, or borrowing against his holdings in Tesla or SpaceX.
The rise in interest rates will have made borrowing to finance the operation more expensive.
Text messages from Elon Musk, revealed earlier this year, showed demands to collect billions from his wealthy contacts.
Reference:
Tesla set to deliver long-delayed electric trucks to Pepsi in December
