Twenty-one electric Tesla Semi trucks to be used by PepsiCo at Sacramento bottling plant
PepsiCo unveiled its new fleet of Tesla Semi electric trucks at its Sacramento bottling plant on Tuesday morning, becoming the first company in the world to acquire the zero-emissions vehicles.
Twenty-one vehicles will be used by the Sacramento plant for local deliveries of Pepsi products while another 15 are being used by PepsiCo’s FritoLay manufacturing plant in Modesto.
While PepsiCo officials hailed their commitment to sustainability at a Tuesday plant news conference, much of the initial cost of most of the trucks was paid by state and federal grants. The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District paid for 18 of the 21 trucks to be used at the South Sacramento bottling plant with $4.5 million in grants, said Alberto Ayala, its executive director.
Ayala said the grants are needed to encourage companies to buy zero emissions vehicles given that the cost of a Tesla Semi is around $250,000, twice the cost of a heavily polluting diesel truck.
“We have a pot of money and we have to decide where does it make the most sense to spend it,” he said. “And in our case, Pepsi was willing to work with us.”
PepsiCo has ordered 100 Tesla Semis, some of which will be used for long-haul deliveries in California. The trucks have a range of around 400 miles before they need to be charged, said Erica Edwards, senior vice-president for manufacturing for PepsiCo.
She said PepsiCo has installed four 750-kilowatt Tesla charging stalls at both its Sacramento and Modesto plants.
Edwards said the use of the state and federal grants was helping PepsiCo move at a more rapid pace to make the transition to non-polluting vehicles. PepsiCo received a total of $15 million in state and local grants for the vehicles and charging infrastructure in both Sacramento and Modesto, plus $40,000 per vehicle from the federal government.
“We do need to move faster,” she said. “And if you think about a company like ours that has thousands and thousands of trucks on the road, we do need help, right?”
Ultimately, companies in California will be forced to purchase electric trucks from Tesla and other competing manufactures. The California Air Resources Board is in the middle of a rule-making process that would require all new trucks purchased to be electric by 2045.
Tesla founder Elon Musk first announced that his company would manufacture the Semi in December 2017, and PepsiCo was one of the first companies to order the vehicles. However, manufacturing of the vehicles only began last year because the COVID-19 pandemic and battery cell supply issues caused delays.
During an event at Tesla’s Nevada plant in Dec. 2022 to kick off delivery of the first vehicles, Musk quipped, “Sorry for the delay.”
Tesla has not said how many Semis have been ordered or what is the Reno plant manufacturing capacity.
