Tesla Semi electric truck enters European market for the first time

According to foreign media reports, Tesla has officially launched the expansion plan of the Semi electric truck in the European market, appointing Usuf Shermo as the head of business development in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and simultaneously starting the recruitment of key talents in Europe. The new executive holds a master's degree in economic engineering and energy resource management from the Technical University of Berlin. He has served as sales director at the German branch of the electric truck company Volta Trucks. In the past year, he has been responsible for the light commercial vehicle sales business of the German startup EVUM Motors.

The background of this strategic deployment is the tortuous development of Tesla Semi over the past eight years. Since its release in 2017, the production of this model has been postponed many times. The "mass production version" launched in 2022 has only delivered dozens of vehicles in small batches in the United States. In order to break through the bottleneck of production capacity, Tesla announced in January 2023 to expand the Nevada Super Factory. At present, the factory building has been basically completed and the production line is being built. It is expected to start mass production at the end of 2025, and the annual production capacity will gradually increase to 50,000 vehicles.

However, the promotion of the European market still faces challenges. Since the US production line will not be put into production until the end of the year, the industry expects that the Semi will not be able to complete European certification until the second half of 2026. It is worth noting that although Tesla has announced that it will produce Semi at the Berlin Super Factory, the factory currently only produces the Model Y. In the European market where competition in commercial vehicle electrification is intensifying, whether Tesla can break through with Shermo's industry experience will become an important focus in the next two years.