Tesla plans to ramp up electric Semi truck production in 2026

Tesla executives say the company will begin full production of its all-electric Class 8 Semi truck in 2026.

The company introduced the Semi in December 2022 and has delayed mass production of the vehicle several times over the past two years.

“We’re progressing swiftly in the build of a Semi factory in our gigafactory in Reno,” an unidentified Tesla executive said during a call with analysts to discuss third-quarter earnings after the market closed Wednesday. “We’ve released all our major capital expenditures for that program, and we’re on track to start pilot builds in the second half of next year, with production starting the first half of 2026 and really throughout the year to full production of the Semi.”

Austin, Texas-based Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) adjusted earnings per share increased 9% year over year to 72 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 58 cents per share.

The electric automaker had revenue of $25.1 billion, an 8% increase compared to the same year-ago quarter. Tesla’s third-quarter revenue topped Wall Street quarterly expectations of $25.3 billion.

Tesla sold 462,890 passenger vehicles during the second quarter, a 6% year-over-year increase.

Related: Tesla Q2 profits plunge over 40% due to growing EV competition

Tesla officials said the company has delivered about 200 Semi trucks to clients such as PepsiCo. Officials also said the Semi trucks that have been deployed have cameras and sensors that could give the vehicle full self-driving (FSD) capabilities.

“We have kind of ridiculous demand for the Semi,” CEO Elon Musk said during the call.

Musk said Pepsi’s drivers who have driven the Semi don’t want to go back to driving a diesel tractor.

“The electric Semi is the choice,” he said. “Their top drivers get to drive the Tesla Semi.”

Musk said the truck could help with driver fatigue and include safety features such as anti-jackknifing technology.

“As soon as the fleet is trained and the neural nets are up, we’ll get FSD onto that platform,” he said. “It would be a massive improvement in driver fatigue.”

Tesla officials gave no update on plans for a factory in Monterrey, Mexico. Musk said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on July 23 that the company is pausing plans for the factory until after the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.

“I think we need to see just where things stand after the election. [Republican nominee Donald] Trump has said that there could be heavy tariffs on vehicles produced in Mexico. It doesn’t make sense to invest a lot in Mexico if that is going to be the case,” Musk said on the July call.

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