Tesla is finally handing over the first of its all-electric Semi trucks to customers, nearly a decade after the vehicle was first unveiled in 2017 and years after it was initially expected to enter production.

At an event in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday night, Tesla executives — with CEO Elon Musk notably absent because he was attending a state dinner with President Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping — walked customers, employees and influencers through the truck’s latest specifications and production plans. The company also shared an update on the Semi through its official X account: Tesla Semi.

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A Long Wait, And A Delayed Rollout

Customers will be able to take delivery of the truck whenever they are ready, though charging infrastructure remains a meaningful obstacle, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity.

Tesla did not disclose the final sticker price, but executives said the Semi is designed to lower total cost of ownership for fleet operators while cutting emissions and improving reliability. The company has said the most capable version should travel 500 miles or more on a single charge, depending on payload, and is expected to cost just under $300,000 before incentives. Shorter-range versions will also be offered.

The event took place at a new factory dedicated to the Semi, located next to Tesla’s first Gigafactory in Reno. Tesla says the facility could eventually produce as many as 50,000 trucks annually, or roughly 1,000 per week, and create about 3,000 jobs in the local economy.

From EV Truck To Strategic Pivot

The Semi’s long-awaited launch arrives during a broader transition for Tesla. Musk increasingly describes the company as an AI and robotics business, even though the vast majority of its revenue still comes from vehicle sales. He has also updated Tesla’s mission to “build a world of amazing abundance.” When the Semi was first introduced in 2017, Tesla’s mission statement was still “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

Despite that shift in branding and emphasis, Thursday’s presentation still leaned heavily on the environmental case for electrifying freight. Dan Priestley, who heads Tesla’s Semi program, noted that heavy trucks account for 16% of emissions while representing just 1% of vehicles on the road.

“We’re super excited to be deploying these into our own operations because it’s fulfilling the mission that we originally started out [with],” he said.

Inside The Engineering Changes

The Semi was originally scheduled to reach production in 2019, but the program was delayed by the pandemic, global supply-chain disruptions, semiconductor shortages and design revisions driven by feedback from pilot customers.

Priestley and Lars Moravy, who oversees much of Tesla’s engineering work, outlined several of those changes during the roughly 30-minute event. The demonstration was timed to show a Semi’s battery charge rise from 3% to 60% while connected to one of Tesla’s megawatt charging stations. Tesla is also developing a broader charging network to support the truck, Priestley said.

Some changes are significant and easy to see. Tesla has reduced the vehicle’s weight by about 1,000 pounds compared with the original version. Other changes are more technical but no less important. For example, the Semi’s drive axle originally required three different oils; now it uses just one.

Moravy said the previous axle setup had “always frustrated” him and acknowledged that Tesla sometimes favors highly customized engineering solutions. Priestley said changes to the motor design, along with work from Tesla’s lubricants team, allowed the company to eliminate the other two oils.

“Occasionally we get a little too far out there,” he said. Tesla also revised the side-window design after early versions used pop-out windows that did not fully open, a flaw that drew criticism from truck drivers and automotive reviewers alike. Priestley admitted the original approach was “not sufficient” and said the production Semi now uses standard roll-down windows.

“We fully admit we were wrong about the windows,” he said. “Turns out there’s a lot of infrastructure in the world, whether it’s a badge reader, or your toll booth, or you’re talking to somebody on a call box. There’s all kinds of stuff right at that height, and it became evident that we needed a roll-down window in order to make that infrastructure easier to interface with.”

“It’s okay to be wrong, Dan,” Moravy added.

Proving The Critics Wrong

One of Tesla’s boldest claims from the original 2017 reveal was that the Semi could travel 500 miles on a single charge while fully loaded. That claim drew years of skepticism. Among the most prominent critics was Bill Gates, who wrote in a 2020 blog post that electric big rigs would “probably never be a practical solution” because batteries are too big and heavy.

Without naming him directly, Moravy and Priestley appeared to take a swipe at those doubters during Thursday’s presentation. Priestley emphasized Tesla’s focus on efficiency, explaining that every watt-hour saved has a compounding effect: less energy required means a smaller battery, lower cost and less weight.

“We had some naysayers, names shall not be mentioned,” Moravy said.

“But, pretty well-known names,” Priestley replied.

“And at Tesla, we love when people tell us something’s impossible. So we took that challenge,” Moravy said.

Musk Promises More Automation Ahead

Although Musk did not attend in person, he did appear in a prerecorded segment that aired before the event began. In the video, he said the Semi would be the “funnest truck to drive” and said Tesla’s partial automation features, which were notably absent from the vehicle despite years of delays, would be added in the “near future.”

He also argued that the truck makes “a ton of sense economically, because the cost of electricity per mile is much less than the cost of diesel, especially in these crazy times.” The comment glossed over the fact that diesel prices have also been affected by geopolitical tensions and energy-market volatility.

For Tesla, the Semi is more than another product launch. It is a test of whether the company can turn one of its longest-promised vehicles into a credible commercial platform at scale. After years of delay, redesign and skepticism, that test has finally begun.