Four days before Tesla delivers its first all-electric Semi truck, company chief Elon Musk has tweeted that a test drive of the new vehicle saw it complete a 500-mile trip loaded to its maximum weight.
“Tesla team just completed a 500-mile drive with a Tesla Semi weighing in at 81,000 lbs!” Musk said in his post.
Tesla’s Semi comes in a $180,000 500-mile-range variant and a shorter-range 300-mile-range option, which costs $150,000.
Rival makers of electric semis have yet to reach such a long-range, so once verified, Tesla’s recent drive should boost its visibility among companies looking for a greener option to transport goods.
Announced in 2017, the Tesla Semi Class 8 electric semi has been a long time coming, with several launch dates slipping along the way.
Tesla’s new Semi features an attractively sleek design and can reach 60 miles per hour in 20 seconds when loaded to its 80,000-pound maximum gross vehicle weight.
The automaker will make the first deliveries of its new all-electric vehicle on Thursday, December 1. The handover will take place at a special event at Tesla’s Giga Nevada facility, with drinks giant Pepsi becoming the first customer. Tesla is aiming to ramp up production to around 50,000 units annually in North America by 2025.
Renault Trucks
In what looked like a publicity stunt to take the shine off Tesla’s big day, Volvo-owned Renault Trucks delivered a fleet of its electric-powered trucks to Coca-Cola for Belgium-based deliveries beginning a full week ahead of Tesla’s event on Thursday.
As noted by Bloomberg, Renault Trucks also had some fun with the delayed arrival of Tesla’s Semi, releasing an ad showing two workers putting up a billboard for Tesla’s new truck that includes a message about being “the future of trucking.” The pair then drive off in an electric Renault truck.
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