PepsiCo spent the morning showing off its new, all-electric semi trucks. Wrapped in a resplendent, Pepsi blue color, the new fleet of 18 Tesla Semis are the first to go into service with a private company.
The trucks are the first of many that are being delivered to the company, 21 of which will used by its Sacramento bottling plant for local deliveries. Another 15 are going into service at the FritoLay manufacturing plant in Modesto, which is also owned by PepsiCo.
Ultimately, the company has ordered 100 Tesla Semis, which will be used for both local and long-haul purposes. In addition to the electric trucks, PepsiCo has also installed four 750 kW Tesla charging stalls at the two locations.
Although each Tesla Semi costs about twice as much as a diesel semi, the majority of the cost of these trucks is not being provided by the snack company. The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District has provided PepsiCo with $4.5 million in grants, or the equivalent of 18 of the 21 trucks that will be used at the Sacramento bottling plant, reports Yahoo Finance.
Read: Pepsi’s Tesla Semi Spotted Apparently Being Towed Away
“We have a pot of money and we have to decide where does it make the most sense to spend it,” said Alberto Ayala, the executive director of the organization. “And in our case, Pepsi was willing to work with us.”
PepsiCo has received a total of $15 million in state and local funds for the vehicles and the charging infrastructure across Sacramento and Modesto, in addition to $40,000 per vehicle from the federal government. Although the money is going to a wealthy corporation, Sacramento’s vice mayor, Eric Guerra, told CBS that the funds will benefit lower income residents.
“The reality is that transportation like heavy-duty trucks impacts low-income communities who live in this area,” said Guerra. “We also rely on the work and jobs in this area. This is a way for us to clean our air and have a strong healthy economy at the same time and have a better future for our kids.”
Companies based in California will soon have little choice but to buy electric heavy-duty vehicles. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it had approved the state’s plan to limit sales of new diesel-powered semi trucks to just 40 percent of the market by 2035.