Anheuser-Busch previous held the record for placing the largest preorder for Tesla’s all-electric Semi truck, but according to Reuters, a new company has ordered more. Reuters said that PepsiCo now holds the record for preordering 100 of Tesla’s electric Semi trucks.
The soda and snack giant has reserved 100 electric Semi trucks from Tesla in a bit to reduce fleet emissions and help cut down on fuel costs. Each truck requires a $20,000 deposit, so PepsiCo just paid Tesla $2 million that’s sitting in its bank right now. This is under the assumption that PepsiCo ordered the trucks after Tesla raised the deposit amount from $5,000 to $20,000.
Right now, we don’t have the exact cost of the Semi trucks. Assuming they cost about $150,000, that means PepsiCo will be paying Tesla a total of $15 million for the 100 trucks. It’s worth mentioning that these 100 electric trucks would only make up a small fraction of PepsiCo’s total fleet that sits around 10,000 vehicles. A company executive told Reuters that the electric Semi trucks would be used for short-haul deliveries:
PepsiCo intends to deploy Tesla Semis for shipments of snack foods and beverages between manufacturing and distribution facilities and direct to retailers within the 500-mile (800-km) range promised by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.
The semi-trucks will complement PepsiCo’s U.S. fleet of nearly 10,000 big rigs and are a key part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by a total of at least 20 percent by 2030, said Mike O‘Connell, the senior director of North American supply chain for PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay.
PepsiCo is analyzing what routes are best for its Tesla trucks in North America but sees a wide range of uses for lighter loads like snacks or shorter shipments of heavier beverages, O‘Connell said.
Since Tesla unveiled its electric Semi truck, it’s gained quite a bit of traction from trucking companies. Industry watchers have been watching closely and many big companies like JB Hunt Transport Service, Walmart, and Loblaw have already reserved their lot of Tesla trucks. So who do you think will be next? Nestle? Coca-Cola? Kraft?
