Tesla release new video of semi electric truck test drive

The electric vehicle maker’s new truck has been spotted flying around a test track after vision of it on the same track was captured by a spying drone videographer.

Jack Gramenz

2 min read

March 16, 2021 - 12:14PM

Electric vehicle maker Tesla has shared vision of its new Semi truck in action, flying around a test track near the company’s Californian factory.

The company shared the footage after a videographer used a drone to capture vision of the truck being tested, and possibly even the creation of the video that Tesla shared on Twitter on Monday.

Semi on the track pic.twitter.com/0QCTYGbLJv
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 14, 2021

When vision emerged of the truck driving around the track earlier this month, some theorised a Tesla Model Y seen driving in front was being used to film promotional or marketing videos for the new truck, which is expected to go into production this year.

Tesla first announced the Semi in 2016, with concept vehicles being shown in 2017.

Tesla boss Elon Musk with Tesla Semi concept vehicles.

Elon Musk said the Tesla SS.

In January, founder, CEO, and now “technoking” of Tesla Elon Musk announced the truck was ready to go, but the company was waiting on new batteries it was developing that Mr Musk announced last year.

“Semi would use typically five times the number of cells that a car would use, but it would not sell for five times what a car would sell for,” Mr Musk said to investors on an earnings call.

“It would not make sense for us to do the Semi right now, but it will absolutely make sense for us to do it as soon as we can address the cell production constraint.”

The company has new “gigafactories” in Berlin and Texas aimed at increasing battery production.

(L-R): Tesla senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering Drew Baglino and Elon Musk at Tesla's Battery Day announcement last year.

The vision of the Tesla Semi shows the truck appearing to move under its own power around the track.

In recent years, it looked like Tesla could face a challenge from electric vehicle company Nikola, also developing its own electric semi truck.

That challenge seems less pronounced in the wake of accusations against Nikola that led to the resignation of chairman Trevor Milton.

Investment fund Hindenburg Research released an explosive report in September where it accused Mr Milton and Nikola of an “intricate fraud”, making false claims about the company’s technology, and releasing a video of a Nikola truck rolling down a hill rather than moving under its own power.

A grab from a Nikola video showing the truck ‘in motion’, rolling down a hill. The company later said it never claimed the truck was moving under its own power.

Nikola also has concepts for the Badger electric pick-up truck.

Nikola responded to Hindenburg’s report, calling the firm “an activist short-seller financially motivated to manipulate the market and profit from a manufactured decline in Nikola’s stock price” and saying the report contained “a number of false and misleading statements”.

The company did admit the truck from that video didn’t have a motor in it when the footage was captured, or more than a year later when it was posted online, but that the truck was “designed to be powered and driven by its own propulsion”.

Nikola didn’t achieve that design goal however.

“It ultimately decided not to invest additional resources into completing the process to make the Nikola One drive on its own propulsion,” after the company “pivoted to the next generation of trucks”, the company said in its response, saying it “never stated its truck was driving under its own propulsion in the video”, which described the truck being “in motion”.

Soon after Nikola responded, Mr Milton “made the difficult decision to approach the board and volunteer to step aside”, saying “the focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me.”

Originally published as Tesla release new video of semi electric truck test drive

Tesla release new video of semi electric truck test drive

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