The event, held Thursday night in Reno, Nevada, at a new factory dedicated to the Semi, saw company executives—though not CEO Elon Musk, who was attending a state dinner—present the truck to an audience of customers, employees, and influencers. Customers can take delivery once they are ready, though charging infrastructure remains a hurdle, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Tesla plans to build up to 50,000 trucks per year at the plant, creating 3,000 local jobs. The most capable version is expected to travel 500 miles or more on a single charge (depending on load) and cost just under $300,000 before incentives. Shorter-range variants will also be available.
Executives highlighted improvements over the original design, including an 8,000-pound towing demonstration and a fast charge from 3% to 60% in a short period. Dan Priestley, head of the Semi program, noted that heavy trucks produce 16% of emissions despite making up just 1% of vehicles on the road. “We’re super excited to be deploying these into our own operations because it’s fulfilling the mission that we originally started out [with],” he said.
Engineering head Lars Moravy detailed weight reductions of roughly 1,000 pounds and a simplified drive axle that now uses one oil instead of three. “Occasionally we get a little too far out there,” Priestley admitted, referring to the company's tendency toward overly complex designs.
The launch comes as Tesla's mission has evolved from “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” to “build a world of amazing abundance,” with Musk now positioning the company as a robotics and AI firm, though nearly all revenue still comes from vehicle sales.