Renault Trucks helps Coca-Cola beat PepsiCo and Tesla Inc to the electric delivery market. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Plc, the largest soft drink bottler by revenue, will start trips in Belgium on Thursday using battery trucks owned by Volvo AB’s brand. Tesla will deliver its first semi-finished car to PepsiCo on Dec. 1 — five years after Elon Musk showed off a prototype and began taking deposits.
Also read: This fake Tesla Cybertruck from India looks close to the original
When Tesla first unveiled the Semi in November 2017, Musk said it would go into production two years later. While potential customers, including Walmart Inc and Anheuser-Busch InBev, put down deposits, the automaker ultimately prioritized production of the Model 3 sedan and Model Y sport-utility vehicle while it grapples with supply chain issues.
Renault Trucks is well aware of Semi’s lateness. Last month, the company poked fun at Tesla with a video showing two workers putting up a Semi billboard declaring it the future of trucking before driving away in an electric Renault truck.
Coca-Cola Euro Pacific Partners said it was buying Renault E-tech D and E-Tech D Wide trucks, which can cover around 200 kilometers (124 miles) per day. More vehicles will arrive at Belgian bottling plants in the coming months as the country pushes to reduce carbon emissions. The Semi is a larger, heavier vehicle with an estimated range of 500 miles, according to Tesla’s website.
PepsiCo has reserved 100 Semis and expects to deploy an initial 15 by the end of the year. It plans to use them at two factories in California, and said on Twitter that it will provide more details once the vehicles are delivered.
First published date: Nov 27, 2022 at 10:09am CST
https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto/electric-vehicles/teslas-pepsi-semis-lose-out-to-coke-s-electric-renault-trucks-41669523796073.html