PepsiCo has become the first company in the world to acquire a fleet of Tesla Semi electric trucks, unveiling 21 of them at its Sacramento bottling plant on Tuesday morning. Another 15 vehicles will be used by PepsiCo’s FritoLay manufacturing plant in Modesto, California. The new trucks will be used for local deliveries of Pepsi products, while some of the 100 ordered by PepsiCo will be used for long-haul deliveries in California.
At a Tuesday plant news conference, PepsiCo officials touted their commitment to sustainability, acknowledging the cost of the Tesla Semi is high, at around $250,000, which is twice the cost of a diesel truck. Most of the initial cost of the trucks was paid by state and federal grants, with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District paying for 18 of the 21 trucks to be used at the South Sacramento bottling plant with $4.5 million in grants.
“We have a pot of money and we have to decide where does it make the most sense to spend it,” said Alberto Ayala, executive director of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. “And in our case, Pepsi was willing to work with us.”
PepsiCo received a total of $15 million in state and local grants for the vehicles and charging infrastructure in both Sacramento and Modesto, plus $40,000 per vehicle from the federal government. Erica Edwards, senior vice-president for manufacturing for PepsiCo, said the use of the state and federal grants was helping PepsiCo move more quickly to make the transition to non-polluting vehicles.
“We do need to move faster, and if you think about a company like ours that has thousands and thousands of trucks on the road, we do need help, right?” said Edwards. PepsiCo has installed four 750-kilowatt Tesla charging stalls at both its Sacramento and Modesto plants.
The California Air Resources Board is in the midst of a rule-making process that would require all new trucks purchased to be electric by 2045, which means companies in California will eventually be forced to purchase electric trucks from Tesla and other competing manufacturers.
Tesla founder Elon Musk first announced that his company would manufacture the Semi in December 2017, and PepsiCo was one of the first companies to order the vehicles. However, manufacturing of the vehicles only began last year because of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and battery cell supply issues. During an event at Tesla’s Nevada plant in December 2022 to kick off delivery of the first vehicles, Musk quipped, “Sorry for the delay.”
PepsiCo’s acquisition of Tesla Semis marks a significant step toward a more sustainable future for the beverage industry, according to experts. “It’s exciting to see a company like PepsiCo take a leadership role in the transition to electric trucks,” said Erica Kuhlmann, a researcher in sustainable transportation at the University of California, Davis. “This move sends a strong signal to other companies that this is the direction we need to be moving in.”
