Why Is The Huge Tesla Semi 2022 Taking So Long?

Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O) is preparing to reveal its much-delayed Tesla Semi on Thursday, an 18-wheeler heavy-duty truck that has faced doubts from industry experts who question whether battery-electric trucks will withstand the stress of hauling a hefty load over hundreds of miles. Tesla made its first deliveries of Semi trucks to customers Thursday night, five years after it first unveiled the heavy-duty truck.

Tesla Semi Taking So Long

As previously reported by CNBC, Tesla this year established lines and began producing the companys heavy-duty trucks out of Reno, at its Sparks-based Gigafactory.

To better focus on the Berlin-Branenburg and Austin plants, as well as due to the limited availability of battery cells and supply chain challenges around the world, Tesla delayed its semi truck manufacturing launch until 2022.

The Tesla Semi is a Class 8 semi-truck powered exclusively by battery energy, in the process of being developed by Tesla, Inc. Two concept vehicles were unveiled in November 2017, with a planned production date in 2021.

Tesla Semi production

In January 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla Semi production would be delayed to later that year, while Tesla ramps up production of its new batteries at high volumes to satisfy demand for the Semi and other vehicles.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Dan Priestley, senior Tesla engineering manager of Tor trucks, also touted the new super-fast, megawatt-scale chargers which will be used to rapidly refill the trucks batteries, though they did not state how long the Semi trucks will need to take to charge.

CEO Elon Musk has said that Tesla (TSLA.O) needs to produce mass-production quantities of its cheaper 4680 batteries on-site in order to produce its long-delayed Semi. Chief Executive Elon Musk said recently the Semi would use traditional 2170 batteries, which Tesla (TSLA.O) gets from suppliers.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that if it is charged at the megacharger, where Tesla would guarantee the 7C//kWh charge (in the US), Teslas Semi would be $20C//mi (12C//km) cheaper to run than diesel trucks.

Long before Elon Musk was developing flamethrowers and humanoid robots, and wrangling with Stephen King over the cost of a Twitter subscription, announcing a Semi truck for longer ranges saw the chief executive of Tesla Inc.

picking a battle not only with the established car industry, but also basic economics and physics. Production of his first EV Semi truck is set to ramp up through 2023, and, if everything goes right, Tesla may deliver 50,000 units per year to North American customers by 2024, Elon Musk told analysts and investors.