Orders for Teslas

The hype surrounding the unveiling of Tesla’s Semi, an all-electric Class 8 truck scheduled for production in 2019, has captured the attention of a number of significant, well-known companies across the United States.

UPS this week announced that it has placed a reservation for 125 of Tesla’s electric trucks. According to reports, it is the largest reservation to date for the Semi, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled in November.

Other notable companies that have placed pre-orders according to reports include Walmart, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and Sysco Corp, which announced earlier in December its reservation for 50 trucks. PepsiCo reportedly has placed an order for 100 trucks.

UPS said it has provided Tesla with trucking lane information as part of the company’s evaluation of the vehicle’s expected performance for the UPS duty cycle. The trucks will join a UPS fleet that includes alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicle fleet powered by electricity, natural gas, propane and other non-traditional fuels.

The Tesla Semi claims up to 500 miles range on a single charge and the company said the truck provides enhanced on-road safety and reduced long-term cost of ownership. Safety enhancements include automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automated lane guidance and brake-by-wire and steer-by-wire with redundancy. Tesla expects to begin production of the vehicles in 2019. Reuters reported that the trucks will cost around $200,000.

Tesla is hardly the lone pioneer in the electric truck market, as Navistar International Corp. and Volkswagen’s truck division announced earlier this year they will co-develop an electric medium-duty truck, also for 2019.

Daimler Trucks also unveiled a heavy-duty, Class 8 all-electric truck concept, the E-Fuso Vision One, with a 220-mile range in October. Daimler also released a smaller electric truck for urban routes.