Tesla Semi spotted being towed, raising concerns, but let’s calm down

A Tesla Semi electric truck has been spotted being towed, and it is raising concerns about reliability, but it’s not too surprising early in the program.

Tesla unveiled the production version of its Tesla Semi class 8 electric truck and delivered the first units last month.

PepsiCo took delivery of the first Tesla Semi trucks. Within weeks of taking delivery of the first truck, PepsiCo said that it was already deploying 36 Tesla Semi trucks.

Now a Tesla Semi truck owned by PepsiCo has been spotted being towed away by another truck.

The pictures shared on the /r/RealTesla subreddit, known to be negative about the company, has raised concerns about the brand new truck already facing reliability issues:

The truck was spotted in Sacramento, California, where PepsiCo has a facility where it said it planned to use 21 Tesla Semi trucks. It appears to have broken down, and it is being carried to an unknown location.

Before starting deliveries of the truck in December, we reported that Tesla had already started building a team to service Tesla Semi trucks in California, including mobile technicians to go to the clients.

A Tesla Semi was also spotted broken down on a highway on ramp just a few weeks before the first deliveries to PepsiCo.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla naysayers are jumping on this as an example of the Tesla Semi program failing, but this is to be expected early in a new vehicle program.

Obviously you don’t want it to happen, especially not in a commercial vehicle since when it’s not working it means you are losing money, but it is part of the growing pain of being an early adopter.

It’s certainly something to keep an eye on if it keeps happening often, but for now, I wouldn’t worry too much if some of the early units need more work. That’s why Tesla is delivering to PepsiCo, which is operating those trucks in North California – close to Tesla engineering and where Tesla builds the truck in Nevada.