Less than a month after unveiling its new long-range electric Semi truck, Tesla Inc ( TSLA) has received its largest pre-order for the vehicle yet. On Tuesday, a PepsiCo Inc ( PEP) executive said the company has ordered 100 Tesla Semis, bringing total known reservations to 267, according to Reuters.
Pepsi joins other Tesla customers who have already placed orders for the new truck, including Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT), J.B. Hunt Transport Services ( JBHT) and Sysco Corp. ( SYY).
Frito-Lay’s senior director of its North American supply chain Mike O’Connell said the Tesla trucks will help Pepsi meet its long-term goal of reducing supply chain greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent before 2030.
[See: 7 of the Best Energy Stocks to Buy for 2018.]
The Tesla trucks come equipped with enhanced autopilot features, have a range of up to 500 miles on a single charge and can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just five seconds. Tesla expects to begin delivering its first Semis in 2019.
While the Semi’s sleek design and incredible performance are certainly impressive, analysts don’t expect the trucks to have much of an impact on Tesla’s bottom line anytime soon.
“We expect the Tesla Semi to be more impactful for the trucking industry than Tesla itself,” Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker said following the launch event in November.
Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates the Semi could account for as much as 20 percent of Tesla’s total revenue by 2025. But for now, he says the Tesla story is all about the Model 3 rollout. Tesla had initially expected to be producing 20,000 Model 3s per month by December 2017, but last month it bumped that target back to “late Q1 2018.”
“We can’t help worrying that Tesla may be taking on too much organizationally — which could distract it from ensuring Model 3’s commercial success, which we believe is the critical driver of the company’s fortunes,” Sacconaghi says.
[See: 7 of the Best Tech Stocks to Buy for 2018.]
Bernstein has a “market perform” rating and $265 price target for Tesla stock.
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PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) Is All In on the Tesla (TSLA) Semi originally appeared on usnews.com
