Tesla wants to leave its mark on heavy-duty
transportation with a fully-electric semi that’s planned to go into production
in 2019. The truck is currently in prototype form, and in this video, we see it
for the first time testing out in the open since it debuted during a special
event at the end of last year.
The short clip posted on YouTube was shot somewhere
in the States near a UPS depot, and as expected, the Tesla Semi looks and
sounds very fast. Officially, it needs just 5 seconds to sprint from rest to 96 km/h, when it’s not dragging a trailer behind it, or 20 seconds under
heavy load.
As all vehicles made by Tesla, the Semi is not only
about speed and power. It features a zero-emission range of up to 500 miles
(800 km), in the top-of-the-line model, for which the automaker is expected to
ask about US$ 180,000. Slash US$ 30,000 from that price and you could get a lower
model with 300 miles (480 km) of range in between charges.
Tesla has already received plenty of interest for
the Semi. Despite the company’s history of delaying products, they already have
100 units reserved by PepsiCo, and 125 units reserved by UPS, with the latter
being their largest order yet.
All-in-all, the Californian maker has received some
1,500 reservations, with customers including Wal-Mart, J.B. Hunt, Sysco, and
Anheuser-Busch, among others.
