There’s been a lot of false hope among established and prospective electric vehicle manufacturers over the past 10 years.
Some businesses have gone by the wayside as they try to establish their EVs in a market still dominated by petrol and diesel-powered vehicles.
Of course, the big players have deep pockets and have been able to play the long game.
But Tesla is sort of in-between.
They’ve become a big player with sales of their cars and SUVs continually on the up, both globally and in Australia.
However, there are concerns about the long-term prospects of the Elon Musk-led brand, especially regarding the addition of commercial vehicles into the EV brand’s line-up.
The Tesla Pick-Up has been troublesome, and the Tesla Truck has been in the headlines for production delays and missed delivery promises.
Tesla recently laid off thousands of workers in a bid to save money.
Now comes confirmation that the Tesla Class 8 Semi tractor (or prime mover in Aussie language) won’t enter proper production until late next year.
Set to be manufactured at a state-of-the-art plant in Reno, Nevada, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla, Lars Moravy, has said first customer deliveries are now not expected to start until early 2026.
Speaking to investors at the release of the company’s first-quarter 2024 results this week, Moravy said high-profile customers like Pepsi Co. will get their vehicles.
“So we’re finalizing the engineering of the Semi to enable like a super cost-effective high-volume production with our learnings from our fleet and our pilot fleet and Pepsi fleet, which we are expanding this year marginally.”
We’ll keep an eye on the situation in the coming months, one can’t help but feel just a little skeptical that the long-promised offering might end up in the too-hard basket for Tesla.
