PepsiCo Inc. has preordered 100 of Tesla’s Semi electric trucks, the largest-known order so far.
PepsiCo’s electric trucks add to orders already made by more than a dozen companies such as Anheuser-Busch, Wal-Mart, JB Hunt Transport Services and Sysco.
PepsiCo intends to deploy Tesla Semis for shipments of snack foods and beverages between manufacturing and distribution facilities and direct to retailers within the 500-mile (800-km) range promised by Elon Musk.
Tesla unveiled the Semi last month and expects the truck to be in production by 2019.
The new semis will complement PepsiCo’s US fleet of nearly 10,000 trucks and are a key part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by a total of at least 20% by 2030, Mike O‘Connell, the senior director of North American supply chain for PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay, confirmed the order to Reuters today.
