Today's Tesla update on Semi points to deliveries to begin this year, ending battery constraint worries.
"We are currently building Model Y capacity at Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas and remain on track to start production and deliveries from each location in 2021. Gigafactory Shanghai will continue to expand further over time. Tesla Semi deliveries will also begin in 2021," said Tesla in its Q1 2021 report.
Earlier today Tesla posted further strong growth at the beginning of the year and achieved its highest quarterly profit to date. In the three months to the end of March, tech billionaire Elon Musk's company earned a bottom line of $ 438 million (€ 363 million) as it announced on Monday after the US market closed. A year ago, the balance sheet showed only a very slight increase of 16 million dollars.
In its Product Outlook section, the automaker revealed that the Tesla Semi is now set to begin deliveries later this year, positive news for the many pre-orderers of the all-electric commercial truck.
Today's news update on Tesla Semi delivery date effectively can put an end to talks of battery constraints, an issue that has plagued automakers who manufacture electric vehicles for years.
In March 2021 Tesla CEO Elon Musk said “Demand is no problem, but near-term cell supply makes it hard to scale Semi. This limitation will be less onerous next year.” Still, it is not a new issue. During the Q3 Earnings Call in 2020, Musk said, “We need to solve the cell constraint before ramping Semi to significant volume. That’s the only real constraint on Semi’s progress.”
"The Semi, due to its large size, increased range, and need for excessive power output requires a significant number of battery cells. The Semi could have been produced earlier, but it could have affected the production processes of Tesla’s mass-market vehicles, like the Model 3 and Model Y. Ultimately, the widespread consumer vehicles take priority, and the Semi project simply had to wait," explains Joey Klender from Teslarati.
“Demand is no problem, but near-term cell supply makes it hard to scale Semi. This limitation will be less onerous next year.” Still, it is not a new issue. During the Q3 Earnings Call in 2020, Musk said, “We need to solve the cell constraint before ramping Semi to significant volume. That’s the only real constraint on Semi’s progress.”
The Semi, due to its large size, increased range, and need for excessive power output requires a significant number of battery cells. The Semi could have been produced earlier, but it could have affected the production processes of Tesla’s mass-market vehicles, like the Model 3 and Model Y. Ultimately, the widespread consumer vehicles take priority, and the Semi project simply had to wait.
I think this year Tesla will only make some initial deliveries of the Semi truck, just to establish Semi truck's presence as a BEV Semi supplier. Despite what I said about, the batteries will continue to be a constraint to Tesla for some time because the capacity is not there yet. Batteries are going to be a serious concern for other carmakers as well. However, the big difference between many of them and Tesla is that Tesla is the only company preparing internal production capacity at large scale in addition to directing all their suppliers to make as many batteries in the 4680 and older cylindrical formats as they can.
Based on what I read about Tesla, the company is not yet producing any quality 4680 batteries that the company would put in vehicles it sell. That is as of yet. Elon Musk once said it will take another 12 to 18 months before 4680 batteries are starting to be produced at scale. This implies the Model Y in Berlin and Austin will be using 2170 battery cells. As for battery supply, Tesla is asking any supplier to call them and they'll buy all the batteries they will provide as long on as price is decent.
Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebok, Linkedin and Youtube.