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The electric vehicle that I have most been looking forward to seeing hit the market for several years is the Tesla Semi. It would be a huge lie if I didn’t say that I’m disappointed that the Semi is delayed until 2023 (at least). I’m also not surprised, given that former Automotive President Jerome Guillen left Tesla earlier this year and it was 100% his baby. (See the articles on our 2019 interview with Jérôme here and here.)
Tesla Semi in red. Photo by Kyle Field, CleanTechnica.
What was good to hear from Elon Musk at Tesla’s shareholders meeting in 2021 was an explanation for the delay. Although, again, the explanation didn’t come with much (or no) surprise. Basically Tesla has been pretty limited this year and will be next year as well. This concerns batteries, automotive chips, etc. As Elon said at one point, no matter how many additional vehicle models the company sells, it wouldn’t be able to deliver more units this year – the constraint is supply, not supply. demand. With that in mind, and due to the number of batteries and chips Semi needs, it is being delayed until these supply chains ramp up, which should be in 2023 for now.
Before continuing, I would just like to point out that this is a huge disappointment. We need to decarbonize heavy and medium trucks through electrification, and the longer it takes, the worse off we all are. There was so much enthusiasm for the Tesla Semi when it was unveiled due to the huge potential in the industry. Sadly, another two years of the semi-trailer industry being dominated by fossil fuel vehicles.
Tesla Cybertruck in New York City on May 8, 2021. Image courtesy of Mira Shahan & Brendan Miles for CleanTechnica.
Likewise, the Tesla Cybertruck is delayed until the end of 2022 for all the same reasons. The Cybertruck also needs batteries and chips, but the Model Y and Model 3 use all the batteries and chips Tesla can get right now. (Well, sure, Model S and Model X use a few, too, but that’s pretty much a rounding error at this point.)
Responding to a question about when the Cybertruck will be released to market, Elon Musk said at today’s meeting (yesterday in the continental US now, if you want to get technical):
“Well, this year has been just a constant struggle with parts supply. So, just to be clear, if we had five more products, we wouldn’t change the production of our vehicles at all, because we were essentially limited by multiple supply chain shortages – like, many types, not just chips. There were a lot of shortages in the supply chain. So it wouldn’t really matter if we had the Semi or the Cybertruck or whatever, we just wouldn’t be able to do that. […]
“I think what we’ll most likely see is that Cybertruck will start production next year and then hit volume production in 2023. And hopefully we can also produce the Semi and the new Roadster in ’23. We should therefore overcome our severe shortages in the 23 supply chain. I am optimistic that this will be the case.
So that’s the word on the Cybertruck.
It’s unclear how much this might open people up to the Rivian R1T or the Ford F-150 Lightning. Obviously, these are all electric trucks, but they are also very different vehicles. It is not known at all how many potential buyers actually buy these trucks. Considering those who cross-buy, let’s take a look at where these other electric trucks stand.
The F-150 Lightning has just entered pre-production and the truck will go on sale in the spring of 2022, beating the Cybertruck in the market. However, production capacity is targeted at 80,000 vehicles per year and the company already has reservations for more than 150,000 trucks. Thus, it will take some time to go through the existing – and surely growing – reservation list.
Production of the Rivian R1T, meanwhile, has just started (a bit late, but clearly well ahead of the others), and I suspect production will be at full throttle within a year.
A special evening with some of Rivian’s first employees and now the first deliveries! Some of these families have been involved in building our business for over 11 years. Thanks for all the hard work and dedication. pic.twitter.com/QWEBwoxzD2
– RJ Scaringe (@RJScaringe) September 25, 2021
That said, the R1T has a much higher starting price than the Cybertruck or F-150 Lighting – $ 67,500. It’s always been history and it’s hard for me to get excited about the R1T. I am avid for consumer and high volume electric vehicles. However, the R1T is clearly a compelling vehicle that will bring more families into the electric future. And it happens!
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