Tesla CEO Elon Musk starts first Semi truck deliveries in Sparks, Nevada

Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, has recently kicked off the delivery of its first few production Semi trucks developed at its factory in Sparks, Nevada, while talking with Dan Priestly, Senior Manager, Semi truck engineering Tesla. Musk and Tesla did not provide any information regarding the quantity of Semis it is planning to deliver.

As reported earlier, this year, Tesla began production of the Semi outside of Reno at the site where it makes the battery cells, drive units, and battery packs primarily that power its cars. Initially, in December 2017, Tesla showed off the semi-design, although the production got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, and other reasons.

At the deliveries kick-off event, Musk described the last five years' journey briefly and apologized for the delay. Later he thanked and handed over the mic to Frito Lay, PepsiCo's representative, the first Tesla customer to receive and use production Semi trucks.

One leading difference between Tesla's Class 8 offering and other heavy-duty trucks is the location of the steering wheel and the driver's seat. Despite using the left side or right side, Tesla has designed the Semis with the steering wheel in the center of the cab and offered touchscreens on both sides of the driver.

Apparently, when Tesla's Semi was developing, several other electric heavy-duty trucks were launched in the market. According to reports, Volvoowned Renault Trucks and Daimler have manufactured and handed over heavy-duty electric trucks to customers before Tesla.

Even Nikola, whose founder was recently alleged and convicted of fraud, commenced production of a battery electric truck in March.

For the record, Tesla offers some high-tech features which are not available anywhere else, which include a new and fast charging system, with a battery having high range as compared to its rivalries. The DC fast-charging system uses a water-based coolant to deliver up to 1MW of power while maintaining safety. According to Tesla, a fully loaded Semi can go 500 miles on a single charge.

Source credit - https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/01/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-kicks-off-semi-truck-deliveries.html