Attendees board a Tesla Semi during the 2026 ACT Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Tuesday, May 5, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ian Moll | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
tesla The company will officially open its first factory in Sparks, Nevada for mass production of the Semi heavy-duty electric truck, as CEO Elon Musk looks to bring in big rigs.
The company first unveiled the Semi in 2017 and began selling the truck in very limited quantities to early customers, including anchor clients. pepsicoA live stream of Thursday’s ribbon cutting event is scheduled for 9pm ET or 6pm local time.
The factory opening comes as Tesla’s core business of electric vehicles faces increasing competition around the world, and rising diesel prices present a potential transition to EVs in commercial trucking.
Tesla has struggled to gain much traction with its angular steel Cybertruck, the first small pickup truck it delivered to customers in 2023.
On Tuesday, industry coalition ZET SCALE announced it had “selected Tesla as the primary original equipment manufacturer” for an initial order of 2,500 trucks, with the goal of ordering more than 10,000 electric trucks from a range of providers.
Trucking company Einride also recently announced that it has ordered 500 Tesla Semi trucks for its fleet and plans to introduce some of them this month.
At Tesla’s last earnings call in July, Musk told investors that the company’s self-driving system (known as FSD or Full Self-Driving) would be available in semis in the near future, but he did not provide a specific date. Musk said at the time that he believes unmanned systems are essential to the trucking industry.
“There aren’t enough people around who want to drive the trucks that are essential to transportation across America,” Musk said. “Self-driving semiconductors are actually going to be very important in addressing the truck driver shortage.”
Musk, who has a long history of failing to meet deadlines when it comes to driverless cars, added that the company expects to have “self-driving cars in the Tesla Semi probably by the end of this year or early next year.”
Competitors Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, meanwhile, are already conducting driverless tests with their trucks, transporting packages for partners.
For now, the main selling points for Tesla’s Semi are its battery range and charging network. The long-range version of the Tesla Semi can travel an estimated 500 miles with a full battery, while the standard version has an estimated range of 325 miles, according to the company.
According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, trucks and buses make up less than 10% of the world’s road vehicles, but they account for nearly half of transportation-related air pollution. The group said in its 2025 report that switching to efficient, zero-emission commercial vehicles could reduce pollution levels and deliver “savings for fleet operators through reduced costs.”
Tesla also plans to bring the Semi to Europe, where rivals such as Volvo and Daimler Trucks already sell battery-powered models.
Attention: Options trading cheap ahead of October announcement
