The Tesla Truck was lauded as a significant game changer in the heavy truck market in the USA (at least).
However, the electrified prime mover has been a little slow out of the starting blocks with Tesla facing some ongoing production challenges, not just in the heavy truck space.
For example, Pepsi Co. in the US placed an order for 100 trucks back in 2017, all were meant to enter the soft drink giant’s distribution operations by 2023.
So far, only 36 have been delivered.
Reuters reports that the holdup isn’t just confined to Pepsi, or to the USA for that matter.
A number of Canadian haulers who have placed orders for the trucks have essentially given up on recieving their Tesla vehicles and are turning to rival electric truck manufacturers to fill their ranks.
US-based food distributor Sysco, UPS and Walmart are all also awaiting the Tesla product and in some instances are instead turning to the Freightliner eCascadia.
What is of significant interest in all this is that the early Tesla Truck orders were all subsidised by significant tax-payer funded Government grants.
The news agency reached out to Tesla for comment, however they declined to comment on the production holdups.
What we do know though is that it appears sourcing batteries for the heavy truck offering is an ongoing issue.
The Tesla founder, Elon Musk, confirmed this was continuing to be an issue for the brand at an energy conference in 2023.
But, the billionaire did promise those issues would be resolved in 2024.
Pepsi Co. appears to be hedging its bets when it comes to the balance of the 100 truck order.
A spokesperson saying they were “focused on best leveraging the 36 (Tesla Semi) vehicles that are currently in our fleet.”
News that the Pepsi order remains mostly unfilled comes after Tesla recently laid off 14,000 workers.
We’ll keep you updated on the Tesla truck production issues moving forward.
