Tesla's Semi Truck Reaches Customers Nearly a Decade After Its Debut

Tesla's long-delayed electric semi is finally reaching customers: volume production of the Semi began in April 2026 and the first deliveries went out this week. The truck was shown in concept form in 2017, so the wait lasted almost a decade.

On Thursday evening Tesla held an event at its new Semi factory next to Gigafactory Nevada. The company says the plant can build 50,000 trucks a year, or about 1,000 per week.

Customers, but no numbers

The event named the freight operators that will run the truck, among them PepsiCo, US Foods, DHL, WattEV, ABF, Einride, IMC and OK Produce.

Tesla did not publish order numbers or an updated price. Electrek reported that the company was quoting $290,000 for the 500-mile truck, far above the $150,000 and $180,000 figures advertised in 2017.

Battery and engineering

Much of the evening was devoted to hardware. Dan Priestley, Tesla's director of Semi truck engineering, said the 500-mile range refers to fully loaded trucks, while engineering vice president Lars Moravy said a Semi carrying about 60,000 pounds could cover roughly 600 miles.

The Semi now uses Tesla's in-house 4680 cells instead of the purchased 2170 cells of earlier test units. Tesla says a fully loaded truck consumes about 1,700 Wh per mile against an original target of 2,000 Wh, which allows a smaller and cheaper battery for the same range. The drivetrain was redesigned too: a new rotor, a stator shared with the Cybertruck and a drive axle about 80 kilograms lighter.

Charging and uptime

Charging is the open question. The Semi carries an 822 kWh battery pack and depends on Tesla's Megacharger, which the company says delivers up to 1.2 megawatts per stall. Tesla plans more than 30 stations with over 200 megawatt-capable posts by the end of the year.

Tesla sells the Semi as a fleet product rather than a single vehicle, citing more than 98 percent uptime for its fleet against 90-95 percent on average for diesel Class 8 trucks.

Why it matters

Demand is not the problem: Einride ordered 500 trucks in August, IMC Logistics said it would buy 50 Semis for California drayage, and on Monday Tesla was picked by a coalition of cargo shippers to supply 2,500 trucks for zero-emission freight in California. In a recorded message CEO Elon Musk said the waiting list is significant. The test now is delivery speed: some operators have waited years, and another delay would cost Tesla reputation it can ill afford.