Tesla Semi Production Pushed Back To Late 2020, No One Bats An Eyelid

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has revealed that the electric car manufacturer’s Semi truck won’t hit the production line until late 2020.

The Semi was introduced to the world in late 2017 and, at the time, the company claimed that production would commence in 2019. In typical Tesla fashion, that date has turned out to be overly ambitious.

While speaking during Tesla’s latest shareholder’s meeting, Musk made little fuss mentioning that production of the Semi has been pushed back by a full 12 months. He stated that the delay relates to the company’s ability to scale up the production of batteries: “There’s not much point in increasing product complexity if we don’t have enough batteries.” (Ed’s note: there’s a Tesla logistics joke in there somewhere, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?)

Also Read: Tesla Semi Has A 500-Mile Range And Hits 60MPH In 5 Seconds

Musk added that Tesla will do whatever it has to in order to ensure it can scale up battery production as fast as possible. This could even mean that they get into the mining business, although he failed to provide any details about this possibility.

While the average consumer probably won’t be overly concerned to hear that the Semi has been pushed back, some of the companies to have ordered it probably beg to differ. And they’re not small-town outfits, either; Anheuser-Busch, UPS, FedEx, and Walmart are chief among them, and we bet they won’t like it one bit.

Unless things change by the time the Semi hits production, the range-topping version should land with approximately 500 miles (804 km) of range under highway conditions when it is towing its full 80,000 lbs load. Prices start at $150,000 for the 300-mile (482 km) variant and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. At least for now…