Here’s the Tesla Semi… again
The long-delayed truck is finally in production and reaching customers this week. Now Tesla has to prove that it was worth the wait.
byAndrew J. Hawkins Sep 24, 2026, 10:12 PM EDT
Remember the Tesla Semi? The long-gestating, heavy-duty truck first introduced in concept form in 2017 is finally in volume production as of April 2026 — nearly a decade after its initial introduction. On Thursday evening, the company held yet another event for the Semi to demonstrate to customers and investors that the long wait was finally over.
The event was held at Tesla’s new Semi factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where the company says it can build 50,000 trucks a year, or 1,000 per week. The purpose was to announce a raft of new (and old) customers for the Semi, including PepsiCo, US Foods, DHL, WattEV, ABF, Einride, IMC, and OK Produce. (Most of these names were leaked ahead of the event by a YouTuber flying a drone over the company’s facility in Sparks, Nevada.) First deliveries of the truck started this week.
But there were still a lot of missing details that could have helped explain why the wait was so long, and where the Semi goes from here. Tesla didn’t reveal order numbers, nor did it update the price of the Semi — which is rumored to be $290,000 for the long range version. In short, like many Tesla events these days, this one was lacking in some key updates.
The trucks were supposed to go into production in 2019 but were delayed for a variety of reasons, including the covid pandemic and a global parts shortage.
