Tesla rolls out its first electric trucks

Vehicle giant Tesla has delivered its first electric semitrailers in the US, with chief executive Elon Musk promising the trucks would "look like an elephant moving like a cheetah" and provide a "step-change" in transport and emissions.

The electric trucks were delivered to PepsiCo at Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada before a large in-person audience on Friday and an online contingent of more than 30,000 people.

The Tesla Semi, delivered five years after it was first unveiled, promises to travel 800 kilometres on a single charge while fully loaded, and use four independent motors to reach speeds of 96km/h in just 20 seconds.

Mr Musk, who drove a Tesla Semi into the event, said producing a semitrailer may not seem to "make sense from a brand standpoint" for Tesla but could make a significant impact on transport emissions.

"In the US, there's 15 million passenger vehicles and 200,000 semi trucks so it seems like a small percentage but it's actually 20 per cent of US vehicle emissions because you've got a huge vehicle and it's being driven all the time," Mr Musk said.

"When you factor in the number of hours driven and the weight that it's carrying although it's only one per cent of vehicle production it's 20 per cent of vehicle emissions and it's over a third of all the particulate emissions.

"From a health point, particularly in cities, this is a huge impact so that's why we're doing it."

Tesla also revealed it had developed a megawatt charger to recharge the vehicles – technology that would later be used with its Cybertruck – and the truck would feature traction control, regenerative braking, and an automatic clutch.

The company recently tested the Semi, Mr Musk said, on an 800km journey from San Diego to Fremont in California without recharging.

The Tesla trucks have been launched years after originally expected, following a series of delays blamed on Covid-19 shutdowns and supply chain shortages.

Representatives from PepsiCo took delivery of the first Tesla Semis at the Nevada event, after placing orders for 100 electric semitrailers shortly after its 2017 announcement.

Fifteen of Pepsi's Tesla Semis will be used by subsidiary Frito-Lay at its facility in Modesto, California, that the company plans to turn into a zero-emission hub.

PepsiCo North America chief executive Kirk Tanner thanked Tesla at the event, saying it had taken 'countless hours to make this happen'.

The Tesla Semi's price reportedly starts at $US150,000, making it more expensive than diesel-based trucks, but orders have been placed by large US firms including Walmart and Fedex.

The semitrailer will compete for attention alongside hydrogen-fuelled vehicles created by companies including Hyundai and Hyzon, which began hitting roads in Europe in late 2021.