Musk says Pepsi to obtain Tesla’s first Semi vehicles in December

Tesla is beginning Semi electrical business truck manufacturing and PepsiCo Inc will get the primary deliveries on Dec. 1, the electrical automobile maker’s chief Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday.

When Musk unveiled the prototype of the futuristic, battery-powered Semi in 2017, he mentioned the Class 8 truck would go into manufacturing by 2019.

Nonetheless, the timeline has been pushed a number of occasions as a consequence of half shortages and Musk mentioned the manufacturing can be delayed to subsequent yr. In August, he introduced the deliberate manufacturing of the truck.

In one other tweet, Musk reiterated that the automobile has a spread of 500 miles. It was not instantly clear what number of Semi vehicles the electrical automobile maker plans to supply.

The truck is anticipated to value $180,000, though it could qualify for a tax break of as much as $40,000 below a U.S. subsidy program permitted by the Senate.

Again in 2017, PepsiCo reserved 100 of Tesla’s semi electrical vehicles because it sought to cut back gasoline prices and fleet emissions.

In an interview with CNBC final yr, PepsiCo’s high boss Ramon Laguarta had mentioned transportation accounted for 10% of the corporate’s fuel emissions.

The maker of Mountain Dew soda and Doritos chips had beforehand mentioned it goals to make use of the vehicles to ship snack meals and drinks between manufacturing and distribution facilities in addition to to retailers.

PepsiCo didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters’ request for remark.