Tesla’s battery electric truck Semi is now finally available on the official website. Users can now pay US$20K to secure their orders.

Tesla’s battery electric truck Semi is now opened for pre-orders for the first time since its announcement 5 years ago. Pre-orders are now possible from Tesla’s official website for the North American region, where buyers can first pay for a deposit of US$5,000, before paying the remaining sum of US$15K within the next 10 days, in order to complete the pre-order procedure.

You should think carefully before placing a pre-order, however, since the entire sum of US$20K is nonrefundable, even though the US$5,000 is fully refundable.

A lot of people have forgotten the true power of this battery electric truck from having waited for way too long. Let us jog your memory one more time. The Semi is configured with four motors, and achieves 0-100 in merely 20 seconds, with a maximum driving range of 800km. Of course, the Semi is also equipped with Tesla’s Autopilot function that the company takes pride in.

Semi was first announced back in 2017, and multiple businesses had placed pre-orders afterwards, with Pepsi being the earliest company that pre-ordered the vehicle. The company received the first batch of 15 units during January this year, which provided reassurance for many businesses that placed an order. Several major clients, including Walmart and FedEx, are still waiting for their shipment, and hope that battery electric trucks are able to lower their carbon emission from logistics.

The power of Semi and Cybertruck comes from Tesla’s in-house 4680 battery, which has yet to attain a true mass production scale. Judging by the online pre-order of Semi, not only will it gather some additional funds for Tesla, but it also symbolizes that the mass production of the 4680 battery may just be on the right track.

 (Cover photo source: Tesla)