At Tesla’s reveal of its upcoming electric semi truck in November of 2017, one of the biggest surprises was the vehicle’s range, claimed to be 500 miles on a single charge. On Wednesday’s first quarter performance conference call, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk reportedly raised the bar further, stating that the truck will have a maximum range “closer to 600 miles,” approaching double what industry insiders projected prior to the truck’s unveiling according to Electrek.
The climbing range claims come as a result of Tesla’s rigorous testing of the vehicle in the run up to its commercial launch, with production kickoff expected in 2019, and sales of 100,000 trucks per year by 2023.
The Drive contacted Tesla for confirmation of these figures and will update this article if we hear back.
Despite the positive prospects of the Tesla Semi’s capabilities, the electric vehicle manufacturer found itself in a feud with rival EV upstart Nikola Motor, which filed for a $2 billion lawsuit against Tesla this week, alleging the Tesla product to be in violation of patents awarded to Nikola Motor. Adding insult to Injury was a confirmation Friday that Anheuser-Busch’s order of 40 Tesla Semis has been dwarfed by the company’s request for Nikola Motor’s product, to the tune of 800 of its hydrogen fuel cell trucks.
Competition in the electric long haul semi market remains fierce, but is limited to these two players at present. Volvo will build electric trucks of its own for urban use, and Daimler will deploy 10 prototypes of its own electric trucks later this year. However, with each sporting ranges below 200 miles, they compete in a segment entirely separate from those targeted by Nikola and Tesla.