Photo: Franz von Holzhausen
Tesla might be known for its absurdly quick electric sedans, but the company's first commercial vehicle - a semi truck, no less - is shaping up to be a real success. Not one month from the prototype unveiling and rumors say there are over 1,200 reservations already, and they don't seem to be stopping.
The Model 3 recipe appears to be repeating. Tesla opened the books for the electric sedan 18 months before the vehicle's official launch, and now it has the first two years' production accounted for, excluding any other orders it may receive in the process.
The Semi was shown on November 16 and it's scheduled to make its market debut toward the end of 2019. That's roughly two years from now, and with just one month gone, the company has already received over 1,000 deposits for the battery-powered semi truck with the latest - and largest so far - coming fro PepsiCo for 100 of them.
Just in case you missed it, each pre-order is accompanied by a $20,000 deposit, unless it's made for a Founders Series model, in which case the full $200,000 price has to be paid. The other two available options are the 300-mile Semi selling for $150,000 and the 500-mile one that costs $180,000.
The specs alone are enough to justify the truck's success, but what's really impressive - and shows why the project has been such a success - is how close to the prototype one of the early sketches looks like. It's a testament to the fact that the team knew all too well what it wanted from the vehicle from the very first stages of development, and that showed in how quickly they were able to show a working prototype.
The sketch you see here was posted by the Tesla Chief Designer, Franz von Holzhausen, and you'll be hard-pressed to find any differences to the prototype that was on stage last month. We don't know exactly how "early" the sketch was, but we'll have to take Franz's word on it. Besides, between the Tesla brand identity and the Semi's main inspiration source - the bullet train - how else could the truck actually end up looking?
The Semi was shown on November 16 and it's scheduled to make its market debut toward the end of 2019. That's roughly two years from now, and with just one month gone, the company has already received over 1,000 deposits for the battery-powered semi truck with the latest - and largest so far - coming fro PepsiCo for 100 of them.
Just in case you missed it, each pre-order is accompanied by a $20,000 deposit, unless it's made for a Founders Series model, in which case the full $200,000 price has to be paid. The other two available options are the 300-mile Semi selling for $150,000 and the 500-mile one that costs $180,000.
The specs alone are enough to justify the truck's success, but what's really impressive - and shows why the project has been such a success - is how close to the prototype one of the early sketches looks like. It's a testament to the fact that the team knew all too well what it wanted from the vehicle from the very first stages of development, and that showed in how quickly they were able to show a working prototype.
The sketch you see here was posted by the Tesla Chief Designer, Franz von Holzhausen, and you'll be hard-pressed to find any differences to the prototype that was on stage last month. We don't know exactly how "early" the sketch was, but we'll have to take Franz's word on it. Besides, between the Tesla brand identity and the Semi's main inspiration source - the bullet train - how else could the truck actually end up looking?
Early sketch of BAMF #BAMF Semi @Tesla. Order here: https://t.co/Ktiz1AH1nF pic.twitter.com/G1aCTqcb8l
— Franz von Holzhausen (@woodhaus2) December 8, 2017
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