Following October’s announcement the new Tesla Semi is ready for series production, Tesla has now officially set the date for the start of deliveries of the electric truck: on December 1, Tesla will have a special “delivery event” at its Nevada facility, the company has announced.
Elon Musk referenced this date in a tweet in October when he announced the commencement of e-truck manufacturing in Texas. This said that delivery to Pepsi will begin on December 1st. However, like with the Tesla Semi, there was uncertainty whether the automotive giant would hit the deadline but this appears to have been put to rest with the confirmation the “Semi Delivery Event” will take place on 01 December at Giga Nevada.
Although series production of the Tesla Semi is scheduled for the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, that site is not currently operational, hence the Nevada launch at the combined Tesla and Panasonic battery facility. According to Electrek, Tesla has established a small truck production line in a new facility near Gigafactory 1 in Reno, capable of producing five trucks each week. As a result, the “delivery event” in Nevada makes sense.
It is unclear how many trucks Tesla will deliver to Pepsi on 1st December. According to “Electrek,” around 40 Semis may have been manufactured in the eight weeks between the declared start of manufacturing and the delivery ceremony.
The manufacturing ramp-up should begin in 2024, when Tesla wants to make 50,000 vehicles, as Elon Musk indicated in a quarterly results presentation to analystsin November.
