Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy was recently featured on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, alongside Design Chief Franz von Holzhausen.
The focus of the episode was on Leno's personal Cybertruck. Throughout the episode, Moravy, von Holzhausen, and Leno talked about a variety of topics, from the Cybertruck’s features to its performance on and off the road.
Eventually, the three automotive veterans expanded beyond the Cybertruck, spilling into other subjects like the company’s Class 8 all-electric Tesla Semi.
A year had passed since Tesla's inaugural delivery event for the Semi, and subsequently, the company had taken a rather cautious stance in scaling up production for the vehicle.
According to comments made by Moravy, the electric automaker has been closely collaborating with PepsiCo to prepare for the mass production of the Semi. The Tesla VP hinted at the possibility of a production acceleration for the Semi in the coming year.
“we have close to 100 Semis on our fleet now,” mentioned Moravy.
Moravy added that Tesla was working with Pepsi to “just understand the durability and get it right so we can go into volume production next year,”
The Tesla Semi may not be a commonly seen vehicle on the roads, but it holds the potential to significantly impact the shift towards renewable energy.
CEO, Elon Musk highlighted during the Semi's inaugural delivery event last year that although Class 8 trucks constitute just 1% of vehicles in the United States, they are responsible for 20% of US vehicle emissions and a staggering 36% of US vehicle particulate emissions.
Musk hopes that transitioning the Class 8 industry to electric power will yield substantial environmental benefits.
Shares of TSLA are down 0.43% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.