Originally published on X Auto.
by Iqtidar Ali | @IqtidarAlii
The Tesla Semi red prototype was recently seen at a facility for a large warehousing and logistics client from California named “Yandell,” a huge facility at 360 Industrial Court in Benicia.
Arash Malek — who happens to be a super cool photographer, videographer, and a Tesla enthusiast — at the same time took his Model 3 to the scene and captured some great drone footage for our viewing pleasure, plus some awesome photos.
Yandell Logistics has been operating in the field since 1945 and reportedly it holds reservations for ten 300 mile range Tesla Semi trucks. Since Tesla is aiming to start production late next year, more and more demonstrations from clients like this should be witnessed in the near future.
These range numbers from Tesla are very conservative, it should be noted, as has normally been the practice of the company at early stages. In the latest testing report, the Tesla Semi is exceeding it’s range expectation.
Tesla is taking reservations of the all-electric Semi trucks for a $20,000 down payment and has listed the 300 mile range version at a $150,000 base price and the 500 mile range variant at $180,000. The semi trucks have incredible performance stats only offered by Tesla in this segment at this point of time. Just think of a drag coefficient of 0.36 Cd for a semi truck — simply amazing!
https://youtu.be/JLtJ7SeZehQ
Both corporate giants and small companies are taking interest in the Tesla Semi lately, in order to bring their logistics ecosystems close to zero emissions. This is how the business sector can fulfill its social responsibility and jump to next-gen technology at the same time.
Tesla’s current portfolio of Tesla Semi customers includes PepsiCo, UPS, Walmart, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), and more, with a reservations tally of around 650 trucks, but according to Elon Musk’s statement on the Q1 2018 earnings call, the company has about 2,000 pre-orders for the Tesla Semi. [Editor’s note: We interviewed Jerome Guillen, President of Automotive, earlier this year. He leads the Semi project and it was initially his idea. He told us that basically every major player in this space has reservations in and Tesla is working closely with them to finalize the trucks.]
That is one killer aerial shot of the Tesla Semi Truck above, taken at the perfect height and perfect moment, thanks to the photography skills of Arash. A photo gallery on X Auto and Arash’s instagram account also shows the beauty of the Tesla Semi’s next-level design from Tesla Chief Designer Franz Von Holzhausen and his team.
Let us know your thoughts about the Tesla Semi design in the comments section below.
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