Musk says Tesla Semi ready for production; Flags battery cell shortage

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said engineering work on the company's Semi truck was complete and it was ready for production, but added that the lack of battery cells was still an issue.

The freight-hauling truck with an all-electric powertrain could begin to be delivered by the end of this year, he said on the company’s 2020 Q4 earnings call.

Musk also said the only thing limiting production was the availability of battery cells.

“The main reason we have not accelerated new products – like for example Tesla Semi – is that we simply don’t have enough cells for it,” Musk said. “If we were to make the Semi right now, and we could easily go into production with the Semi right now, but we would not have enough cells for it.”

“A Semi would use typically five times the number of cells that a car would use, but it would not sell for five times what a car would sell for, so it kind of would not make sense for us to do the Semi right now,” Musk said. “But it will absolutely make sense for us to do it as soon as we can address the cell production constraint.”

Musk added that the company does expect to have sufficient cell volume once it goes into production on its 4680 battery pack.