Pepsi orders 100 Tesla Trucks

Reuters has reported that PepsiCo has reserved 100 of Tesla’s electric Semi trucks, the largest known order of the big rig, as the company allegedly seeks to reduce fuel costs and fleet emissions.

Tesla unveiled the Semi last month and expects the truck to be in production by 2019.

However, many big US transport companies are holding off on the Tesla for now, with Tesla admitting it has problems filling orders for its small cars, and questions being raised over whether the company has the manufacturing capability to build large numbers of big trucks.

There are also questions over recharging times compared to a diesel fill-up, range, and payload capabilities and how the market for electric commercial vehicles will develop.

Navistar and Volkswagen Truck and Bus are working to launch an electric medium duty truck by late 2019, while Fuso showed us its near-ready heavy-duty truck at the Tokyo Motor Show in October and has already delivered the first of a smaller range of electric trucks, the eCanter, to customers in New York.

PepsiCo’s 100 trucks add to orders by more than a dozen companies such as Wal-Mart, fleet operator J.B. Hunt Transport Services, and food service distribution company Sysco Corp. Tesla claims it has at least 285 truck reservations in hand, according to a Reuters tally.

PepsiCo said it intends to deploy Tesla Semis for shipments of snack foods and beverages between manufacturing and distribution facilities and direct to retailers within the 500-mile (800km) range promised by Tesla Chief Elon Musk.

Tesla was initially asking $5,000 per truck for pre-orders but that amount has since risen to $20,000.

Pepsi declined to say how much the company paid to reserve its trucks when it placed the order, or whether it plans to lease the trucks or buy them outright. A sceptic may hypothesise that companies such as Pepsi may pay substantially less deposit or even ‘lend’ their names to the auto manufacturer for mutual PR benefit.