Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated throughout the firm’s earnings name that quantity manufacturing of its class 8 truck, the Tesla Semi, is on maintain till Tesla could make a excessive quantity of its personal 4680 battery cells.

The cells, which Tesla designed and confirmed off to shareholders at a battery day presentation in September 2020, are massive, tab-less lithium-ion cells that the corporate is making at its pilot battery manufacturing unit in Fremont, California. The corporate stated in a Q4 earnings update that it’ll ship its first Semi by the top of 2021.

“Prototypes are straightforward, scaling manufacturing could be very onerous,” the CEO lamented.

When Tesla first unveiled its Semi vehicles in 2017, Musk stated they’d be delivered to prospects in 2019. In April final yr, the corporate stated it will delay Semi manufacturing until this year.

Tesla has taken scores of reservations from large identify prospects for the Semi. Anheuser-Busch, DHL Group, PepsiCo, Pleasure Group and Walmart put cash down for the category 8, battery electrical Tesla vehicles.

Tesla has additionally used Semi prototypes in a advertising and marketing stunt to ship vehicles to prospects. It just lately posted job listings for workers to work on Semi truck manufacturing traces at its battery plant outdoors of Reno, Nevada.

Musk stated of the Semi, particularly:

“The primary cause we have not accelerated new merchandise is — like for instance Tesla Semi — is that we merely haven’t got sufficient cells for it. If we have been to make the Semi like proper now, which we might simply go into manufacturing with the Semi, however we’d not have sufficient cells for it proper now. We can have sufficient cells for Semi once we are producing the Tesla 4680 in quantity.”

“Mainly we don’t see any points with making a compelling long-range truck with batteries aside from cell provide,” Musk stated.

Tesla President of Automotive Jerome Guillen stated on the decision that Tesla’s Semi makes use of the identical elements included within the firm’s sedans and SUVs at the moment to allow driver help options, which Tesla markets as its Autopilot and Full Self Driving choices. “I am wanting ahead to having some extra ones on the street very quickly,” he stated.

In response to the CEO, the Semi would require 5 instances the variety of lithium ion battery cells {that a} automobile would use at the moment, however the firm couldn’t promote it for 5 instances what it will probably promote a automobile. That is why, Musk stated, “It kinda wouldn’t make sense for us to do the Semi, however it’s going to completely make sense for us to do it as quickly as we will deal with the cell manufacturing constraint. The identical would go for a van.”

Vans and different light-duty vehicles are anticipated to be in excessive demand within the U.S. in coming years. One cause is President Biden’s Buy America plan, by way of which he goals to interchange the federal authorities’s fleet of inside combustion engine automobiles with cleaner, quieter electrics.

In response to essentially the most just lately out there knowledge from the Basic Companies Company, the federal fleet consists of greater than 400,000 vehicles, a class that encompasses gentle responsibility pickups and vans. Tesla rivals together with GM, Daimler, Rivian and others are creating, and in some circumstances already promoting, battery electrical vans.

“I believe Tesla’s undoubtedly going to make an electrical van sooner or later,” Musk stated. “The factor to remember is that there’s basically a constraint on battery cell output. Should you’re not concerned in manufacturing, it is actually onerous to understand simply how onerous it’s to scale manufacturing. It is the toughest factor on this planet!”