Tesla Semi Ready To Replace Diesel Trucks, Says Unit Head As He Cheers EPA's Tough New Standards

Tesla‘s TSLA Senior Manager of Semi truck engineering, Dan Priestley, has backed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) stronger Phase-3 emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles.

What Happened: Priestley took to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday to announce confidence in the company’s semi-truck saying that it is very capable of replacing diesel trucks.

Tesla’s fleet of Semis ships over 20,000 battery packs from Giga Nevada to its Fremont factory and can carry the same load as any diesel truck, he said, at substantially lower operating costs. “Now, it's about scale,” he noted.

Tighter emission rules, superior economics, and the electric truck experience will enable full market adoption “faster than many think,” Priestley added.

The Phase 3 standards for heavy-duty vocational vehicles (delivery trucks, refuse haulers, etc.) will be up to 60% stricter than the previous standards, as per the EPA.

Heavy-duty vehicles account for 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The new rules proposed by the EPA apply from 2027 to 2032 model-year vehicles and are aimed at avoiding 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2055. It is also expected to reap approximately $13 billion in annualized net benefits by then.

Why It Matters: The Tesla Semi is still in pilot production. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in January, Tesla executive Karn Budhiraj mentioned that the company has initiated the next phase of Giga Nevada expansion, focused on incorporating the Semi.

In an episode of Jay Leno's Garage posted on YouTube in December, Tesla executives Lars Moravy and Franz von Holzhausen pegged volume production of the Semi for 2024.

They said that the EV giant currently has about 100 Semis in its fleet and is working with PepsiCo, to whom it delivered the first Tesla Semi trucks, to understand the vehicle's durability.

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