Tesla says mass production of electric Semi to begin in 2026

Q1 revenue at Texas-based automaker drops 20% year over year to $19.3B

Tesla said in its first-quarter earnings report the Semi remains on track “for volume production next year.” (Photo: Tesla)

Tesla said Tuesday that full production of its all-electric Class 8 Semi truck would begin in 2026 at its Gigafactory Nevada.

Austin, Texas-based Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) released its first-quarter earnings and held a conference call with analysts after the market closed.

CEO Elon Musk and other Tesla officials did not discuss the Semi during the call, but the company said in its first-quarter earnings report the Semi remains on track “for volume production next year.”

Tesla officials said in January that production of the Semi could begin by the end of 2025, with mass production starting sometime in 2026.

“We just closed up the Semi factory roofing walls last week in Reno,” Travis Axelrod, Tesla’s head of investor relations, said during a call with analysts in January. “We’re prepping for mechanical installation of all the equipment in the coming months. The first builds of the high-volume Semi design will come late this year in 2025 and begin ramping early in 2026.”

Musk first discussed the Semi in 2017, and the truck was supposed to go into mass production in 2019. 

Tesla pitched the Semi as a truck that would have a range of up to 500 miles fully charged, with a load capacity of 81,000 pounds.

The Semi was originally priced in 2017 at $150,000 for a 300-mile range version and $180,000 for the 500-mile version.

Tesla eventually unveiled the Semi in December 2022 but has delayed mass production of the electric tractor several times over the past three years.

About 200 Semi trucks have been delivered to clients such as PepsiCo.

The Semi’s mass production could be delayed an additional 28 months and face a dramatic price increase, according to a recent report by Electrek.  

Tesla had revenue of $19.3 billion during the first quarter, a 20% year-over-year decrease from the same year-ago period.

The company’s adjusted earnings per share fell 40% year over year to 27 cents during the quarter.

Tesla missed on Wall Street analysts’ estimates for the quarter, which predicted revenue of $21.1 billion and 41 cents per share.

The automaker produced 362,615 vehicles in the first quarter, a 16% year-over-year decrease.

Tesla delivered 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter, a 13% decline compared to the same quarter in 2024. 

Tesla officials gave no update on plans for a factory in Monterrey, Mexico. Musk said in July 2024 that the company was pausing plans for the factory until after the U.S. presidential election.

The company has auto factories in Austin; Fremont, California; Sparks, Nevada; Berlin; and Shanghai.

Tesla employs about 121,858 workers around the world.

TeslaQ1/25Q1/24Y/Y % Change
Total revenue$19.3B$21.3B(9%)
Automotive revenue$13.9B$17.3B(20%)
Number of vehicles built362,615433,371(16%)
Number of vehicles delivered336,681386,810(13%)
Adjusted earnings per share$0.27$0.45(40%)
Tesla first-quarter earnings snapshot.
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Noi Mahoney

Noi Mahoney is a Texas-based journalist who covers cross-border trade, logistics and supply chains for FreightWaves. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English in 1998. Mahoney has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working for newspapers in Maryland and Texas. Contact nmahoney@freightwaves.com