It's finally here. After 5 years of development, Tesla has finally delivered it's first Semi, which is a fully electric 18-wheeler. In case you didn't know, it has 1,000 hp and 1,050 ft lb (1,428 nm) of torque, leading it to have a 0-60 time of 20 secs at full load, which is 80,000 lbs (36,287 kg), and a range of either 300 or 500 mi (483 or 805 km), as well as having < 2 kWh of energy consumption/mi.
The lucky customer was PepsiCo Inc, who ordered a total of 100 units of the 18-wheeler. According to Engadget, the tractor-trailer is $150,000 USD for the 300 mile range version, and $180,000 USD for the 500 mile range version. Tesla also estimates that you can save up to $250,000 USD in fuel over the course of the 1 million mile lifetime of the Semi.
Originally, the Semi was scheduled to deliver in 2019, but by the time April of 2020 came, Tesla officially revised the delivery date to the next year, 2021, due to supply issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time July 2021 came, the delivery date was revised once more, to 2022, this time due to the global computer chip shortage, as well as the production of their 4680 style battery cells being limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, Tesla resumed taking reservations for the Semi once again.
