Tesla plans to ramp up Tesla Semi deliveries to PepsiCo
Tesla is planning to ramp up Tesla Semi deliveries to PepsiCo, its main customer, ahead of the electric semi truck’s volume production.
The Tesla Semi program has seen some fairly serious delays.
It was first unveiled in 2017 and it was supposed to come to production in 2019. Instead, it came to production in late 2022 and it has been in extremely limited production since.
For over a year, Tesla Semi was only used internally and by Pepsico.
However, we have seen the electric vehicle in the hands of several more customers recently.
Last month, we reported on a Tesla Semi being spotted used by Martin Brower and one by food distribution giant Sysco.
Earlier this month, we also learned that Walmart and Costco both got their hands on the Tesla Semi to test it recently.
However, Tesla is still only producing the electric truck in low volume as it expands Gigafactory Nevada to build a new high-volume production line.
Tesla recently said that it now plans for the electric truck to enter volume production late next year and start wider customer deliveries in 2026.
In the meantime, Pepsico remains Tesla’s main customer for the electric truck.
Dan Priestley, head of the Tesla Semi program, went to the ACT Expo yesterday to discuss the status of the program.
The engineer quickly addressed the previously mentioned delays with Tesla Semi (via ACT):
Now, I know, as alluded to, there’s been some questions on timing. But Tesla has a specialty and that is turning the impossible into merely late. I think that there are some narratives that seem to think that electric heavy trucking is still impossible. You might hear someone say that it’s really hard. Well, guess what, it is really hard. We’ve been doing it, but it is absolutely worth doing, and we do not enter this industry lightly.
Tesla is not alone in the electrification of heavy-duty trucking, but the automaker claims to have an advantage with a dedicated electric platform, which is not always the case, especially with legacy truck makers.
Priestley commented on the Tesla Semi being built to be electric from the ground up:
“There’s no wasted space. The powertrain and the vehicle work hand in hand. We saw this on the light-duty side and we’re seeing it all over again on the heavy-duty side.”
With the Tesla Semi’s 500-mile range and megawatt charging, the engineer insists that customers are able to simply swap a diesel truck for an electric one with Tesla’s solution:
“What this does is it unlocks the operational equivalence between diesel and electric. There’s none of these ratios that you need extra electric trucks do the same amount of work that diesels do. They can swap one for one in operations.”
Priestley reiterated that Tesla is currently seeing an average of 1.7 kilowatt hours per mile with Tesla Semi on the Pepsico fleet and that’s with the company carrying heavy loads of brevages.
The engineer tried to reassure the trucking industry at ACT that Tesla is still committed to charging after CEO Elon Musk fired the entire charging team. Priestley said that Tesla still has plans to deploy its Megachargers for trucking:
“To be very clear, charging is core to Tesla. This year, we are investing more than $500 million in new supercharger stations, expanding the network. We are committed to providing our customers with a great supercharging experience and we’re going to extend that exact same train of thought into the heavy-duty side as well. We’re going to make sure that every vehicle we deliver has a charging solution supported that could come in a variety of flavors.”
As Electrek previously reported, the firing of the charging team had nothing to do with a change of plan regarding charging at Tesla. Musk fired the entire team and their leader, Rebecca Tinnuci, as an example because she pushed back against further layoffs, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
Tesla already deployed Megachargers at PepsiCo’s facilities, but it has yet to deploy a public network like it did with the Supercharger.
Finally, Priestley said that Tesla plans to deliver another 50 Tesla Semi trucks to Pepsico ahead of the production ramp. Deliveries to other customers in high volumes aren’t expected until 2026 – making it almost a full decade after the unveiling of the truck.
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies during a remote video hearing held by subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2021.
Handout | Via Reuters
Block jumped more than 5% on Monday, leading a rally in shares of fintech companies as analysts downplayed the threat of JPMorgan Chase’s reported plan to charge data aggregators for access to customer financial information.
The recovery followed steep declines on Friday, after Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan had circulated pricing sheets outlining potential fees for aggregators like Plaid and Yodlee, which connect fintech platforms to users’ bank data.
In a note to clients on Monday, Evercore ISI analysts said the potential new expenses were “far from a ‘business model-breaking’ cost increase.”
In addition to Block’s rise, PayPal climbed 3.5% on Monday after sliding Friday. Robinhood and Shift4 recorded modest gains.
Broader market momentum helped fuel some of the rebound. The Nasdaq closed at a record, and crypto rallied, with bitcoin climbing past $123,000. Ether, solana, and other altcoins also gained.
Evercore ISI’s analysts said that even if JPMorgan’s changes were implemented, the most immediate effect would be a slight bump in the cost of one-time account setups — perhaps 50 to 60 cents.
Morgan Stanley echoed that view, writing that any impact would be “negligible,” especially for large fintechs that rely more on debit, credit, or stored balances than bank account pulls for transactions.
PayPal doesn’t anticipate much short-term impact, according to a person with knowledge of the issue. The person, who asked not to be named in order to speak about private financial matters, noted that PayPal relies on aggregators primarily for account verification and already has long-term pricing contracts in place.
While smaller fintechs that depend heavily on automated clearing house (ACH) rails or Open Banking frameworks for onboarding and compliance may face real pressure if the fees take effect, analysts said the larger platforms are largely insulated.
WATCH: Congress moves to redraw $3.7 trillion crypto market rules, opening door to Wall Street
The global EV market is still charging ahead. According to new numbers from global research firm Rho Motion, 9.1 million EVs were sold worldwide in the first half of 2025, up 28% compared to the same period last year. But not every region is accelerating at the same pace.
China and Europe are doing the heavy lifting
More than half of the world’s EVs this year have been bought in China. That market hit 5.5 million sales in the first six months of 2025 – a 32% jump year-over-year. Around half of new cars bought in China are now electric.
While some Chinese cities’ subsidies have dried up, Rho Motion expects momentum to pick back up later in the year as more funding is released.
In Europe, 2 million EVs were sold in the first half of the year, up 26%. Battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales also rose 26%, thanks in part to affordable models like the Renault 4 (pictured) and 5 entering the market. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) weren’t far behind, growing 27% year-to-date. Chinese automakers are leaning into PHEVs as a way to work around the EU’s new tariffs on BEVs.
Spain is leading the pack with EV sales soaring 85% so far this year. Its generous MOVES III incentive program was extended in April and has kept sales strong. The UK and Germany are also seeing solid growth – 32% and 40%, respectively. France, however, is slumping. With subsidies cut, EV sales there have dropped 13%.
North America is stuck in the slow lane
Things aren’t looking quite as bright in North America. EV sales in the US, Canada, and Mexico are up just 3% so far this year.
Mexico is the one bright spot, with a 20% boost. The US is up 6%. But Canada is down a whopping 23%.
And things could get bumpier. On July 4, Trump signed Congress’s big bill into law, which axes all the Inflation Reduction Act EV tax credits. Those consumer credits for EVs now officially end on September 30.
Just over half of the EVs sold in the US this year qualified for those credits. Rho Motion predicts a rush in Q3 before the subsidies disappear – and a decline in sales after that.
Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester said, “With Trump’s latest cuts in his ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ the US could struggle to see any growth in the EV market overall in 2025.”
Global EV sales snapshot, H1 2025 vs H1 2024
- Global: 9.1 million (+28%)
- China: 5.5 million (+32%)
- Europe: 2.0 million (+26%)
- North America: 0.9 million (+3%)
- Rest of world: 0.7 million (+40%)
Read more: China breaks records as global EV sales hit 7.2 million in 2025
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Lucid’s electric sedan can drive further, charge faster, and packs more advanced tech than most of the competition. That might explain why it’s leading the segment. The Lucid Air remained the best-selling luxury EV sedan in the US after widening its lead in the Q2.
The Lucid Air is America’s best-selling luxury EV sedan
The 2025 Lucid Air Pure arrived as the “World’s most efficient car” with an EPA-estimated range of 420 miles and a record 146 MPGe.
It just set a new Guinness World Record last week for the longest journey by an electric car after travelling 749 miles (1,205 km) on a single charge.
That record was set in the range-topping Lucid Air Grand Touring model, which is rated for up to 512 miles of EPA-estimated range. On the WLTP scale, it’s rated at 597 miles (960 km). Either way, it still crushed the estimates.
According to second-quarter sales data, released by Kelley Blue Book on Monday, the Lucid Air is still America’s best-selling luxury EV.
Lucid sold 2,630 Air models in Q2, up 10% from the previous year. Through the first half of 2025, Lucid Air sales are up 17% with 5,094 units sold.
Tesla, on the other hand, only sold 1,435 Model Ss during the quarter, 71% fewer than it did in Q2 2024. Tesla Model S sales in the US are down 70% through the first half of the year at 2,715.
Although Porsche Taycan sales were up 32% with 1,064 models sold, the significantly upgraded 2025 model year was expected to see even more demand. Porsche has 2,083 Taycans in the US this year, up just 1% from 2024.
Other luxury EV sedans, such as the BMW i5 (1,434), i7 (820), and the Mercedes EQS (498), experienced steep double-digit sales declines year-over-year.
And it’s not just electric luxury sedans. The Lucid Air is currently outselling many gas-powered vehicles in its segment.
Lucid’s first electric SUV, the Gravity, is also rolling out. Although only five were sold in the second quarter, Lucid is quickly scaling production. Lucid aims to produce 20,000 vehicles this year, more than double the roughly 9,000 it built in 2024.
Earlier today, Lucid’s interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, confirmed during an interview with Bloomberg that the company expects higher Gravity output in the second half of the year.
The interview was at the grand opening of Panasonic’s new battery cell plant in De Soto, Kansas. Winterhoff said Lucid will start using new cells from the facility, but not until next year.
Lucid’s CEO stressed the importance of establishing a local supply chain, as policy changes under the Trump Administration are taking effect. Lucid and Panasonic are collaborating to localize EV materials, such as graphite. Last month, Lucid secured a multi-year supply agreement with Graphite One for US-sourced Graphite.
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