Pepsi Orders 100 of Tesla’s Electric Semi Trucks
Never mind the naysayers, another one of the biggest brands in the world is buying into the Tesla hype.
PepsiCo has placed a reservation with Tesla for 100 of the company's upcoming electric semi trucks, according to a report from Reuters. The company will utilize these trucks to ship its products to distribution centers and retailers, supplementing its existing fleet of almost 10,000 trucks, and they will be integral to the company's efforts to cut its distribution network's environmental impact by 20 percent or more by 2030.
It is not yet known which routes the Tesla trucks will be assigned, nor is it known the quantity of cash laid down for this reservation. This deal stands as the largest known to the public as of Tuesday.
PepsiCo produces globally-distributed snack foods such as its namesake soft drink, as well as Fritos, Gatorade, and other recognizable products. The company drew in more than $66 billion in revenue in 2014 alone, according to its own report.
Some of the intrepid first takers of the Tesla semi include shipping company J.B. Hunt and retail giant Wal-Mart, which placed their orders in the immediate wake of the truck's reveal in November (where it was displayed alongside the physics-bending Tesla Roadster). Parcel handler DHL placed an order for 10 units by the end of the month, pushing the total to almost 200 orders within two weeks of its debut. Earlier this month, Anheuser-Busch, the international brewer that owns Budweiser, raised its hand for 40 of the new Tesla trucks, and industrial food distributor Sysco followed the next day, ordering 50 trucks of its own.
While Tesla has its unfazed Stuttgart rival beaten for the moment (as well as its supposed Hungarian competition), competitors still exist in the forms of Toyota and Nikola Motors, both of which are pushing hydrogen as the solution to trucking. Enthusiasm for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles remains strong in the consumer sector as well.
