Tesla has locked up a number of reservations for its all-electric Tesla Semi truck—some of which have become public— including Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo and Walmart. But those truck reservations, which now cost about $20,000 a pop, were limited to North American customers.
Tesla recently updated its Tesla Semi reservations page to officially (and publicly) open it up to new markets, including the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.
Technically, at least one European company, Italy-based trucking company Fercam, secured a reservation in the week following Tesla Semi’s launch. But the company made the order through its U.S. partner Mao, which will receive the truck in New Jersey and then export it, Transport Europa reported in November.
The company’s move into the European market has been expected. Jerome Guillan, who leads Tesla’s trucking program, gave a presentation last month in the Netherlands (a video appeared on Reddit and was later reported by Electrek). But with the reservations page officially updated, this will likely mean more orders, some of which might become public.
Since some companies might not announce their reservations, it’s impossible to put an accurate figure on just how many Tesla has racked up. But a quick calculation of the reservations that have become public, Tesla has likely collected millions so far based on the $20,000 deposit fee and the reservations that have become public. (Tesla increased the deposit price from $5,000 last month.) And the Tesla Semi isn’t expected until 2019.
There’s a reason why Tesla and other companies such as Daimler, Navistar, and Nikola Motor vying are trying to bring trucks with more tech and less (or zero) tailpipe emissions to the marketplace. Stricter emission regulations and the rise of ec-commerce have created a new opportunities. But the sheer size of the trucking industry is compelling enough to justify the investment.
Trucks moved more than 70% of all U.S. freight and generated $676 billion in revenue in 2016, according to the American Trucking Associations. Some 33.8 million trucks were registered for business purposes in 2016. Almost 4 million of them were categorized Class 8, denoting the largest freight trucks.