Tesla owner Elon Musk says that the company’s all-electric Class 8 semi truck achieved a major milestone ahead of a long-awaited customer delivery planned for later this week.
In a November 26 tweet, Musk said that the “Tesla team just completed a 500 mile drive with a Tesla Semi weighing in at 81,000 lbs!”
Tesla team just completed a 500 mile drive with a Tesla Semi weighing in at 81,000 lbs!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
Musk did not provide any additional information on how long the trip took or whether the 500 mile run was completed on a single charge.
Tesla is offering two versions of the Semi — a standard version costing $150,000 with a range of 300 miles and an $180,000 version with a 500 mile range.
Musk’s tweet comes just days ahead of a planned delivery event to be held December 1 at the Tesla Gigafactory located east of Reno, Nevada. December 1 is the planned date for PepsiCo to begin to accept a delivery of 100 Tesla Semis that the company pre-ordered in 2017.
— Tesla (@Tesla) November 16, 2022
Tesla reportedly plans to produce 100 Tesla Semis by the end of the 2022 and 50,000 electric semi trucks per year by 2024.