Tesla Inc. says the production plan for its new electric semi-heavy truck remains in low gear as the special battery cells the large machine needs are scarce.
The Silicon Valley automaker said this week that it plans to ship “our first Tesla Semi by the end of the year.” By ramping up production to meet that goal, Tesla’s TSLA is being tested,
the ability to scale and meet commitments to fleet owners in an industry more focused on cost and performance than the typical Tesla buyer.
“Scaling up production is very difficult,” Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a profit call on Wednesday. “So a big part of the reason – the main reason we haven’t accelerated new products – like Tesla Semi, for example – is that we simply don’t have enough cells for it.”
The Semi, which was unveiled in 2017, initially promised it would be in customer hands by 2019. Since then, its arrival has been delayed for two years, delays that Musk has repeatedly attributed to battery cell supply constraints.
Musk said Tesla is “extremely confident” about its ability to produce long-haul battery-powered trucks. The company has said the Semi will have a range of up to 500 miles and use about five times more battery cells than Tesla’s passenger cars.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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