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Semi-Ready: Tesla Semi-Truck Makes a Small Debut With PepsiCo

The new Tesla semi-truck made a special private showing, tantalizing trucking enthusiasts in the process.

It's like Elon Musk knows we all want to see his electric Tesla semi-truck already. With updates coming left and right, it may be very soon that we see those sleek, Tron-like things take to the streets for real. But until then we're only getting little bits and pieces, like at a recent private showing for PepsiCo, Tesla's partner in crime.

As detailed by electrek.co, Tesla gave a sneak peek to the soft drink company, which we recently reported put in a large order for the Tesla semi-truck.

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The Grand Tour

The truck model is going around the U.S. on a private tour of sorts, giving little looks here and there to top customers who've placed orders on the truck. It stopped by Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis before heading to Plano, Texas, the home of PepsiCo, which is expecting 100 Tesla semi-truck to add to its fleet.

Pepsi is set to order hundreds more of these semi's as Tesla begins to flex out its production. The soft drink and food company is currently strategizing which routes it wants to put the Tesla trucks on in North America, testing them out before they possibly bring on more and more semi's.

Worth It...?

The 300-mile range semi Tesla is producing will run for $150,000, while the 500-mile range version will go for $180,000. With the 100-unit order in place from Pepsi, Tesla semi-trucks look to rake in anywhere between $15 million and $20 million. That's an amazing chunk of change, but a drop in the bucket compared to the potential it can bring in for the electric automaker.

Tesla, while poised to lead the charge in the autonomous, electric semi-truck industry, is already witnessing possible stiff competition with the likes of Waymo, Uber, and Amazon.

NEXT: Tesla Semi Spotted Out in the California Wild

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