First announced by Elon Musk in 2017 Tesla The Semi was one of the longest delayed products in the company’s history. But the new electric truck is finally here, with PepsiCo being the first customer to receive some of the 100 cars he pre-ordered.
“PepsiCo owns one of the largest privately owned fleets in North America, and that’s one of the reasons we’re partnering with Tesla,” said Mike O’Connell, Pepsi’s vice president of supply chain. “We have 15 in Modesto that we’re launching … and then we have 21 in Sacramento.”
For starters, Pepsi uses trucks to deliver Frito-Lay products from its plant in Modesto, Calif., up to 425 miles on a single charge. It also ships Pepsi from its Sacramento warehouse on 100-mile daily routes, going directly to stores and making runs of 300 to 400 miles to other warehouses. Pepsi declined to say whether it had pressed the trucks to test whether they had the full 500-mile range promised by Musk.
CNBC visited Frito-Lay Modesto, where PepsiCo transformed the facility in partnership with the California Air Resources Board to demonstrate the benefits of sustainable development with zero and near-zero emissions technologies. Tesla Semis are the latest addition to the company’s fleet of more than 80,000 vehicles.
“This project resulted in a 91% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and we are using this as a demonstration to then transition to our other operations,” O’Connell said.
Watch the video to learn more about PepsiCo’s Tesla Semis and whether they live up to the hype.
