Tesla has another new high-profile customer – UPS, which has placed the largest order yet for Tesla Semi advance reservations. The shipping giant pre-ordered 125 Tesla Semi trucks, besting PepsiCo’s 100 vehicle order from last week.
UPS has a fleet of around 8,500 alternative fuel vehicles already in service around the world, the company says, and has made a commitment to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions footprint by 12 percent by 2025, a goal it hopes to meet in part through an ambitious alternative fuel vehicle purchase plan – which could result in a lot of orders for Tesla in future.
The current UPS delivery fleet includes over 108,000 vehicles in total, spanning its local delivery vans, cars, tractors motorcycles and its current hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles. Its freight business has over 5,5000 vehicles which tow over 21.,000 trailers, so it could potentially become another huge customer for Tesla’s fledgling truck business.
Tesla has a number of other potential customers placing similar small, pilot pre-order reservations ahead of the truck’s launch. At the current pre-order price of $20,000 (with the remainder of the balance, which starts at $150,000 due at delivery), the UPS pre-order represents a $2,500,000 immediate influx of cash for Tesla.