Tesla’s big bet on semi trucks is already paying big dividends with a lot of companies. The latest to join in on the bandwagon is PepsiCo. They’ve now put in the largest order for the trucks just days after Anheuser Busch put in the top order themselves.
Pepsi has a 10,000 truck fleet so this only represents a tiny portion of their trucks but it already is grabbing headlines due to the name brand attached to it. Each truck comes with a $20,000 deposit and they are rumored to retail around $150,000 per truck.
Reuters was able to catch up with an executive and get the lowdown. It looks like they will mostly be used for short distance traveling.
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.
PepsiCo joins other brands such as Walmart, DHL, Ryder and JB Hunt Services that have ordered trucks.
It is CEO Elon Musk’s world, we’re just living in it.
