Tesla electric truck production delayed to 2022

Tesla has made it clear that it will delay the start of production of its electric truck, the Tesla Semi, until 2022 on battery production issues. Tesla Semi will use a 4680-type battery developed by Tesla to mount a battery pack, but some projects are being delayed due to some tasks remaining in the production of new batteries.

The Tesla Semi is Tesla’s first commercial vehicle, announced in 2017. What is noteworthy is that the drag coefficient is a low value of 0.36, which is phenomenal for a truck. The zero to hundred is also equipped with the driving performance of a sports car in 5 seconds. In addition, the range, which can be called the weakness of electric vehicles, was also changed to 805 km at the time of the announcement and then to 1,000 km after that. In terms of charging time, it is said that using the Tesla Megacharger, the maximum amount of charge that can be driven for 400 miles can be restored in 30 minutes. The release was originally scheduled to begin in 2019.

However, as 2019 passed, production delays were revealed several times, and the most recent thing that CEO Elon Musk mentioned was June 2020, in an email received from the company, remarking that production has been limited so far. Also, in a document submitted in 2020, the Tesla Semi was targeted to start in 2021.

Then, in a document filed with the SEC with the US Securities and Exchange Commission not long ago, Tesla announced that it was in the process of manufacturing the first Model Y at its plants under construction in Berlin, Germany and Austin, USA in 2021. However, he explained that the production speed for each vehicle is affected by supply chain challenges and the progress of regional licensing applications when new manufacturing technologies are introduced. He also announced that the start of the Tesla Semi-Program will be delayed to 2022 due to the fact that the availability of battery cells is currently limited.

It is a 4680-type cell expected to be mass-produced in the dossier, but it is still not clearly stated. Tesla is planning to install it not only in the Semi, but also in the Model Y. Whether the Tesla Semi will really start production in 2022 remains to be seen for the time being. Related information can be found here.