After focusing on the cost of operation instead of the purchase price during the unveiling event last week, Tesla has now released what it refers to as the “expected price” of the Tesla Semi electric trucks.

The company is listing pricing significantly lower than what we and even the most aggressive forecasts in the industry put forward.

Regular production versions for the 300-mile and 500-mile range versions will be $150,000 and $180,000 respectively, while the company is also listing a ‘Founders Series’ version for $200,000.

For comparison, most diesel semi trucks today cost around $120,000.

Reservation holders were previously reporting a required deposit per truck of $5,000, but Tesla is now listing a “base reservation” of $20,000 for the production version and the full $200,000 for the Founders Series.

Several companies have already confirmed Tesla Semi orders following last week’s event.

At an event in Los Angeles last Thursday, Tesla unveiled a new electric truck and made some impressive claims about its specs. They say that the truck achieved a drag coefficient of 0.36, which is unprecedented for a truck and even beats several modern passenger cars.

Musk also confirmed that the electric truck is equipped with 4 independent electric motors on rear axles – enabling insane torque for a 0 to 60 mph acceleration with a full load in 20 seconds.

The new vehicle is expected to hit the roads in 2019.

Electrek’s Take

When looking at the expected cost of operation of $1.26 per mile announced by CEO Elon Musk at the unveiling event last week, we thought that it was in line with expectations when including the amortized cost of the truck.

Yet, we expected that truck to cost closer to $250,000.

$180,000 should be a big surprise, especially when you consider that this vehicle is expected to have a battery pack of 1 MWh in order to support this 500 miles on a charge claim.

In my opinion, this is all hinting at a major battery breakthrough for cost and energy density that is enabling those new electric vehicles. I don’t see any other way that they can achieve anything close to what they are claiming based on current specs.

The apparent increase in the cost of the deposit could also hint at Tesla receiving a lot of demand for the electric trucks, but that’s just speculation at this point.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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