Tesla has taken a major step toward bringing its long-awaited class 8 electric truck to market. In a brief but significant update shared on social media, the company confirmed, “First Semi off high volume line,” marking the start of production on at its dedicated manufacturing line for the Tesla Semi in Nevada.
First Semi off high volume line pic.twitter.com/fI1AdQrJFH
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) April 29, 2026
The milestone represents the culmination of a journey that has stretched nearly a decade. First unveiled in 2017, the Tesla Semi promised to disrupt the freight industry with long range, fast charging, and lower operating costs.
At the time, Tesla targeted production for 2019, but the program faced repeated delays as the company prioritized Model 3 and Model Y ramps, while also working through battery supply constraints.
Despite the setbacks, Tesla did deliver its first Semi units in late 2022 to PepsiCo, its main testing partner. Those early trucks were built in limited quantities at a pilot line at Gigafactory Nevada, and have since been used in real-world operations to validate and improve performance, range, reliability, and charging through Tesla’s Megacharger network.
Now, with the first truck rolling off the high-volume line, the company is moving to the next stage, targeting 50,000 trucks annually from the factory.
The new facility, first announced in early 2023, is designed specifically for high-volume production of the Class 8 electric truck. Tesla had initially targeted a late 2025 start of production, but that timeline shifted into 2026—an unsurprising delay given the complexity of launching an entirely new vehicle on a brand-new production line.
The nearly decade-long delay means pricing for the Tesla Semi has evolved significantly since its original 2017 unveiling, when Tesla promised starting prices as low as US$150,000. Today, the production-ready truck is expected to cost roughly US$260,000 for the Standard Range version (325 miles) and up to about US$300,000 for the 500-mile Long Range variant.
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