Tesla Completes Wall, Roof Construction at Semi Factory
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Tesla completed construction of the walls and roof at the automaker’s forthcoming Reno, Nev., factory for its much-hyped Semi battery-electric tractor, a senior executive said.
Next up over the coming months is installation of all the equipment in the factory, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy said in an update on the first manufacturing plant for the tractor during Tesla’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call.
“We just closed up the Semi factory roof and walls last week in Reno,” he said late Jan. 29. “Which is great with the weather. In Reno, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Tesla’s previously announced production timeline for the Semi remains on schedule, Moravy said, with the first tractors expected to be built by the end of the year and manufacturing ramping up in 2026.
The world’s most valuable automaker by market capitalization previously said Semi production capacity in Reno would be 50,000 tractors per year.
Tesla, whose full self-driving technology for passenger cars and taxis is eagerly awaited, also has ambitions in autonomous trucks, CEO Elon Musk hinted during the call.
“You know, we actually have a shortage of truck drivers in America,” he said. “That’s one of the limiting factors on transport. And people are humans, so they get tired.
“I have a lot of respect for truck drivers because it’s a tough job. But because it’s a tough job, there’s not that many people that want to do it. And … there are fewer people entering truck driving as a profession than are leaving it.”
Trucking is indeed facing a driver shortage and an aging driver workforce. The industry must hire about 1.2 million new drivers over the coming decade to keep pace with retirements and growing freight demand, according to American Trucking Associations calculations.
“So, when you consider, OK, there’s more people leaving truck driving as a profession than entering it. Well, we’ve got … a real logistics problem as time goes by. So, autonomy will be very important to meet that need,” Musk said.
Calculating how much the Semi will add to Tesla’s earnings is a work in progress, Moravy said, although as on previous earnings calls — one of the few times the company or its executive team talk about what it has lauded as a groundbreaking vehicle — Moravy touted its cost effectiveness compared with existing trucks.
(Transport Topics via YouTube)
“As we’ve said before, the Semi is a [total cost of ownership] no brainer,” he said. “It’s much, much cheaper than any other transportation you can have. So, at that point, when we’re at scale, it will meaningfully contribute to Tesla’s revenue … I think it’s difficult to say how much.”
Moravy’s boss, not for the first time, was less reticent about the Semi.
“It’s a several billion [dollars] a year opportunity,” he said during the call. “It’s probably like a 10 billion-a-year thing. Yes, it’s a 1 billion a month at some point, probably.”
Musk also provided some perspective on where the Semi sits in Tesla’s myriad ambitions across transportation, social media, spacecraft, satellite internet access, solar panels, robots and artificial intelligence.
The Semi “is going to pale in comparison to [humanoid robot] Optimus. So yes, a billion a month is a lot, but it’s not going to be like 1% Optimus or something,” he said.
Deutsche Bank analysts expect several thousand Optimus robots to be produced this year for use inside Tesla’s plants. However, Musk set production target of 50,000-100,000 in 2026 and then 10 times in 2027. Sale of the robots to external customers is likely to happen no sooner than the second half of 2026, the analysts said.
Tesla Shareholder Deck Q4 2024
Tesla’s Q4 earnings put its Semi ambitions in further perspective. The company posted a Q4 profit of $2.32 billion, down 71% year on year from $7.93 billion, although revenue rose 2% to $25.71 billion from $25.17 billion.
The company’s operating margin in the most recent quarter was 6.2%, compared with 8.2% a year earlier and 10.2% in the third quarter of 2024.
In the fourth quarter, Tesla produced more than 459,000 vehicles, down 7% compared with nearly 495,000 in the year-ago period.
Overall in 2024, Tesla produced more than 1.773 million vehicles, a decrease of 4% from nearly 1.846 million in 2023.
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