Tesla has shipped two Tesla Semi trucks to its Gigafactory near Berlin, Germany. The company has posted jobs on its website to connect with potential customers for the Semi. A Tesla insider confirmed the company is “taking steps to bring the Tesla Semi to Europe.”
Nearly seven years after its debut, the Semi has yet to officially enter production in the US, but Tesla may be considering bringing it to Europe.
Two Tesla Semi trucks, spotted on a German highway by a driver heading to the factory, arrived at the Gigafactory in Berlin today. The trucks arrived at the facility shortly after the sighting was posted on X, and speculation began circulating on the internet about their purpose in Europe. Is Tesla trying to bring the long-awaited Semi to Europe?
According to a senior Tesla official, the answer is yes.
Graham Carroll, head of business development for Tesla's Semi project, announced on LinkedIn earlier this month that Tesla is looking for talent to bring the Semi program to Europe.
“We are preparing to bring Tesla Semi to Europe and are looking for someone with electrification industry experience to help us develop this exciting new market,” Carroll wrote. “This is a groundbreaking product that meaningfully advances Tesla's mission, and the team behind it is world-class. The big bang is about to begin.”
Along with this announcement, Tesla also posted a job for a Business Development Manager for Europe. Specifically, the position will be tasked with building and maintaining relationships with potential customers interested in purchasing a single Tesla Class 8 truck (or a fleet).
However, Tesla has not confirmed whether the Semi will come to Europe.
Even CEO Elon Musk, who is usually overly optimistic about the automaker's deliverables and associated timelines, has not made this claim: In fact, reports earlier this year suggested the CEO thought it was not out of the question to build the trucks in a German factory (even if they were produced in Europe).
“I think it makes sense to build semi-trucks in Europe, at Giga Berlin,” CEO Elon Musk told Handelsblatt in March.
Tesla has actually been planning to bring the Semi to Europe for months, but not for production reasons — the company is set to show off its flagship commercial vehicle at the IAA Transportation 2024 in Hanover next month — but that doesn't mean German engineers didn't take a hard look at the truck first.
But to sell the trucks in Europe, automakers must evaluate the nuances of compliance required to make semi-trailers roadworthy.
Meanwhile, Tesla has yet to ramp up Semi production in the domestic market, despite starting small volume production in 2022. Large orders from companies such as PepsiCo are taking a long time to be partially filled. This could indicate that some manufacturing and engineering hurdles still remain, and could be related to the 4680 battery cells that Musk has been scrutinizing lately. If Tesla wants to launch a viable product in Europe, it needs to iron out all the issues first, and that may be exactly what the automaker is currently working on.
