Fresh off the production line in Giga Nevada, one of the first Tesla Semi trucks delivered to PepsiCo was the star of Modesto’s annual Celebration of Lights Christmas parade over the weekend.
On Friday night Tesla held a special delivery event at Giga Nevada, where PepsiCo took delivery of several of the class 8 electric trucks. One of the trucks set up on display that night was a Semi wrapped in yellow and red vinyl for Frito-Lay, a PepsiCo subsidiary with a facility in Modesto, California, just over 3 hours away from Giga Nevada.
The company was apparently eager to show it off as about 24 hours after taking delivery it was hooked up to a trailer and took part in Modesto’s annual Celebration of Lights Christmas parade.
In almost complete silence, apart from the Christmas music playing in the background, the Semi paraded through the streets of Modesto with no emissions, and more than enough power to keep the Christmas display and lights on the trailer going.
#Modesto #Christmas #Parade debut of @Fritolay ‘s brand new #Tesla #Semi. This is a big deal for improving valley air. Thank you @Fritolay! pic.twitter.com/B4Rw14AAwk
— Dyslexic Zombie Treat (@bshaddix) December 4, 2022
The Tesla Semi is far only in the hands of PepsiCo and Tesla themselves. PepsiCo has already confirmed they plan to use the class 8 electric trucks to service two of their facilities in California.
One of those will be the Frito-Lay facility in Modesto, where a Megacharger has already been installed.
The Semi will also be working out of the PepsiCo beverages plant in Sacramento.
For Tesla, they will be using the Semi to transport goods between their factories Giga Nevada and Fremont, providing them with virtually instant feedback from drivers which they can use to improve the vehicle over time before it gets delivered to other customers.
Many of those other customers will be in Canada. Several companies have placed large orders for the Tesla Semi, but we don’t yet know when the first ones will be appearing on streets north of the border.
