With Elon Musk at the wheel, Tesla delivered its first electric truck, dubbed "Semi", to the PepsiCo food group in Nevada on Thursday during an evening event.
The machine, with its cabin with rounded lines, and its autonomy capacity of 800 km, was unveiled in 2017 by Tesla.
Five years later, it is now officially on the freight transport market in the United States.
"It's crazy everything that happened in five years (...) but here we are, it's for real (...) Oh yes, it's a beast!
It will really revolutionize the roads and make the world a better place in a significant way, ”said Elon Musk during his presentation.
According to him, the machine has three times the power of any diesel-powered truck and uses regenerative braking to improve its efficiency.
Tesla thus intends to shake up the emerging market of zero-emission heavy goods vehicles, with competitors such as Daimler, Volvo, Traton and Nikola (whose transport trucks do not exceed an average of 400 to 480 kilometers of autonomy) by promising to drive over longer distances without having to stop at the charging station.
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For the adoption of electric trucks to accelerate, it is necessary that “the autonomy really corresponds to the promises and ideally that the batteries shrink”, note several analysts.
Infrastructure must also adapt, with more charging stations and an electricity network strong enough to allow, for example, ten trucks to connect to a parking lot at the same time.
The price will also be decisive.
For now, an electric truck still costs about 70% more to purchase than a diesel truck, but costs less in terms of energy and maintenance.
Tesla had indicated in 2017 that it would offer two versions of its Semi: one at $150,000 for 500 km of autonomy, the other at $180,000 for its version without recharging at 800 km.
Elon Musk, also busy since the takeover of Twitter, indicated at the end of October that he aimed to build 50,000 Semis in 2024.