In a new update of Tesla Semi truck, Tesla shared a video of an all-electric Semi truck's prototype being put through its paces at the Fremont test track, in a Tweet that shows while battery material supply may be holding production back, the electric truck is still very much front of mind for the EV maker.

Surprisingly the Tesla Semi is a bit nosier than expected. "It sounds like a jet taking off on the runway. Love it," responded Youtuber Tesla Joy on Tesla's Twitter page.

The brief video shows Tesla's white-clad Class 8 prototype speeding past the camera with the typical high-pitched sounds that, apart from its zero-emissions status, sets it apart from its diesel counterparts.

As I am reading the comments under the Tesla's tweet, I find them very interesting. Here are some of them.

A user named Quit Yellen, asks "Truckers can do 700 miles in a day with 500 miles being most common. How are you going to charge this? The parking availability for truck drivers is already stretched are you going to retrofit every truckstop for chargers?"

Another user, named Bipolarbear asks, "How much does the battery replacement cost on one of those? 8 year life span? Increasing demand in rare earth metals prices going up every year, new nuclear power station needed for every 10 super charging stations? Is electric really the future?"

Yet another user, named Dave Schmidt, ask a very important question with a human aspect. "What will happen to all the truck driver jobs if we eliminate them with autonomous trucks. Can truckers get a different job that gives the benefits they have now and the wages they make now, or will they need to start over again in life. Similar to pipelines and coal," he writes.

"The fact that Tesla is paying more and more attention to Semi may indicate that the company is almost ready to start production. According to earlier reports, the Semi's body will initially be built in Fremont, California, with final assembly at Giga Nevada in 2021. Ultimately, production is slated to begin at Giga Texas by 2022. It was also reported that pilot production of the Semi will begin in July 2021 and mass production in August 2021," writes Eva Fox from the Tesmanian.

Some news outlets have expressed doubt about the Semi’s release recently, and whether it will actually happen. There is some reason for speculation as the Tesla Semi Twitter page has not been that active in the past few weeks. Musk hasn’t come out with much info in recent weeks, though he did project confidence back in January about production ramping up once the needed battery cells were produced. The Semi page is still up on Tesla’s website, so there have been no indications so far that Tesla has thought about scrapping production.

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This is Armen Hareyan from Torque News. Please follow us at https://twitter.com/torquenewsauto on Twitter and https://www.torquenews.com/ for daily automotive news.

Reference
Teslarati https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-jerome-guillen-president-heavy-trucking/
Tesla Twitter https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/1371125797671538688
Torque News https://www.torquenews.com/13417/what-going-tesla-semi-when-will-it-arrive
Tesmanian https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-posted-a-video-of-semi-on-the-test-track