Tesla has updated its timeline for Tesla Semi, its all-electric semi truck, with now a plan to reach volume production in “late 2025.”

The Tesla Semi program has seen some significant delays – even since it has officially entered production.

It was first unveiled in 2017, and it was supposed to come to market in 2020, but it only officially entered production in late 2022.

Despite entering production more than a year ago, the program has been very limited.

In October 2023, we learned that Tesla had only built about 70 Tesla Semi trucks and the company was using them internally and with one main customer: PepsiCo.

In January 2023, Tesla announced an expansion of Gigafactory Nevada to build the Tesla Semi in volume.

However, more than a year later, we haven’t heard much about the effort.

Yesterday, with the release of its Q1 2024 financial results, Tesla gave a rare update on the production plans for Tesla Semi.

Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, commented:

We’re finalizing the engineering of Semi to enable like a super cost-effective high-volume production with our learnings from our fleet and our pilot fleet and Pepsi fleet, which we are expanding this year marginally. In parallel, as we showed in the shareholders’ deck, we have started construction on the factory in Reno. Our first vehicles are planned for late 2025 with external customers starting in 2026.

The “shareholders’ deck” referenced by Moravy is this picture that Tesla released:

This shows some grading outside Gigafactory Nevada for a new construction project for Tesla Semi.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla Semi has to be Tesla’s longest vehicle program from inception to production yet – or volume production, at least.

But what I find most interesting is that Tesla unveiled the “production version” of the Tesla Semi in December 2022 and yet, it now says that it is using data from current pilot programs to change the Tesla Semi for volume production in late 2025.

Therefore, the “production version” unveiled two years ago was really more Tesla Semi 0.5.

Despite its compact size, Volvo’s low-cost EX30 is already making a big impact. After launching just months ago, the new Volvo EX30 is already living up to its promise of delivering profitable growth.

Volvo’s low-cost EX30 is already making an impact

“We have had a strong start to the year, with our first quarter results laying a solid foundation for the year ahead,” Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said Wednesday.

Volvo set a new global sales record in the first quarter of 2024, fueled by growing demand for its fully electric vehicles.

After being one of the first legacy automakers to commit to an all-electric future, the results speak for themselves.

In the first quarter, Volvo had a 100% electrified (including PHEVs) sales share in 18 markets, up from 15 in Q4. Fully electric vehicles accounted for over 40% of sales share in 19 markets, up from 13 in Q4.

Volvo’s new fully electric small SUV, the EX30, contributed to the sales growth, according to Björn Annwall, Volvo Cars’ chief commercial officer & deputy CEO.

The EX30 helped push Volvo’s EV share of sales to a record 21% in Q1 2024. Volvo sold 14,500 EX30 models in the first three months of the year, topping the EC40 (6,000) while closing in on the EX40 (17,400).

Delivering profitable growth

Volvo set a new all-time sales record in March as it ramps up EX30 deliveries. Perhaps, more importantly, its new electric SUV is helping improve margins.

Volvo’s EV margins improved to 16%, up from 7% a year ago and 13% in Q4. The EX30 “has lived up to its promise of being a profitable growth driver” in just a few months since launching.

In the first three months of 2024, “thousands of customers across Europe got behind the wheel of an EX30,” as Volvo prepares to expand deliveries in key markets like the US, China, Canada, and South Korea.

The EX30 will be sold in over 90 countries by the end of the year. With an expanding EV lineup, Volvo expects strong demand in 2024.

Volvo began production of its first electric minivan, the EM90, for China, with deliveries kicking off in March. In addition, Volvo plans to start building its three-row EX90 electric SUV in the first half of the year.

Volvo’s electric vehicle lineup will include the EX30, EX40, EC40, EM90, and EX90. With a balanced portfolio of electrified models, the brand expects to navigate industry headwinds.

With three new electric models in key segments, Volvo expects demand to “remain robust” over the next few quarters. Volvo expects full-year sales growth of at least 15% in 2024.

Volvo believes revenues can reach SEK 550-600 billion ($50B to $55B) with an EBIT margin above 8% during 2026.

In the first quarter, revenue fell 2% to SEK 93.9 billion ($8.6B). Volvo said revenue was weighed down by contract manufacturing. Meanwhile, operating profit (excluding JVs) rose 8% to SEK 6.8 billion ($625M).

Although overall operating income (including JVs) fell to SEK 4.7 billion ($435M) in Q1, Volvo said it was due to lower revenues at Polestar.

Electrek’s Take

As Electrek has said, Volvo’s early commitment to going all-electric continues to pay off. Not only did Volvo’s EV sales share reach 21% in Q1, but BEV margins are also improving.

With new electric models launching in key segments globally, Volvo expects strong demand in 2024. The automaker will be one to keep an eye on as the industry shifts to electric.

A coalition of U.S. solar manufacturers petitioned the federal government on Wednesday to impose tariffs on imports from four Southeast Asian nations, alleging that the countries are flooding the U.S. market with cheap products that threaten the domestic industry.

First Solar and six other manufacturers allege that companies in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are dumping solar cells on the U.S. market at prices below the cost production or are benefiting from subsidies that leave domestic manufacturers unable to compete.

The other six parties to the petition are Convalt Energy, Meyer Burger, Mission Solar, Qcells, REC Silicon and Swift Solar.

The U.S. manufacturers have asked the International Trade Commission to issue a determination that the domestic solar industry has been harmed. They are requesting that the Commerce Department impose tariffs on solar cell imports from the four countries as a remedy.

First Solar shares rose more than 1% on the news.

The companies that would be targeted by the ITC and Commerce investigations are primarily headquartered in China. The U.S. manufacturers allege the Chinese government is providing subsidies through Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative to manufacturers in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

“This petition is not asking for special treatment from the US government,” Tim Brightbill, the lead attorney in the case, told reporters on a call Tuesday. “It is simply asking that our current trade laws be enforced.”

The Commerce Department found last August that Chinese producers are shipping their solar products through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam and into the U.S. to avoid tariffs. President Joe Biden waived the imposition of tariffs on those products until June.

Brightbill told reporters that the vast majority of imports from the Southeast Asian nations would not be covered by tariffs when Biden’s waiver lifts in June because Chinese companies have moved manufacturing out of China and into the four countries.

Tariffs have divided the U.S. solar industry. The manufacturers’ petition to impose duties was met with opposition from the Solar Energy Industries Association, American Clean Power Association, Advanced Energy United, and the American Council on Renewable Energy.

The trade groups said they are “deeply concerned” that the petitions “will lead to further market volatility across the U.S. solar and storage industry and create uncertainty at a time when we need effective solutions that support U.S. solar manufacturers.”

They called on the Biden administration to consider alternative solutions to the manufacturers’ concerns.

Array Technologies, a manufacturer of solar tracking technology, said the petitions would cause “significant disruptions and challenges for the solar industry.”

“This case is bad news for clean energy jobs and American solar manufacturing,” Array CEO Kevin Hostetler said in a statement Wednesday. “More duties will only cause uncertainty and unnecessary project
delays, holding the U.S. back in meeting our clean energy deployment and manufacturing goals,” he said.

Solar panel prices plummeted nearly 50% globally in 2023 compared to the prior year as manufacturing capacity has tripled since 2021, according to a January report from the International Energy Agency. China’s market share of global supply chains is between 80% and 95%, according to the report.

The global supply glut led to a 45 gigawatt stockpile of solar modules in the U.S. at the end of 2023, nearly double forecast installations for 2024, according to the IEA.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC earlier this month that the Biden administration would not rule out imposing tariffs on subsidized clean energy exports from China.

The ITC and Commerce Department investigations will take about 12 months to conclude, Brightbill said. The soonest tariffs could be imposed is after the Commerce Department makes a preliminary determination, which will take about four to six months, he said.