Tesla Semi secures large order of 50 electric trucks from a truck renting and leasing company

You might one day be able to rent or lease the Tesla Semi electric truck since the automaker has secured a large order of 50 electric trucks from a major truck renting and leasing company in California.

Tesla Semi is currently deep into its test program.

Its prototypes have been spotted around the US in the last few weeks after completing their first cargo trip with battery packs from Gigafactory 1 to Fremont factory.

During the trip, it appears that the Tesla Semi was stopping at the headquarters of some of the companies that have placed orders for the electric truck.

It was first spotted in St-Louis where it visited Anheuser-Busch, the brewer behind Budweiser who also ordered 40 Tesla Semi trucks last year. The stop at the company gave us our closest look at a Tesla Semi electric truck prototype and its electric motors yet.

The Tesla Semi prototype later also stopped at PepsiCo’s headquarters in Texas after the beverage company placed a massive order of 100 trucks with Tesla.

Now we learn that the vehicle also stopped at TCI Transportation in Phoenix, Arizona :

TCI has invested in ordering 50 (YES, 50!!) of the new Tesla Electric Semi trucks!!! Pictured are our very own TCI Co-President's, Ryan and Andrew Flynn – taking this bad boy out for a spin!!! #TeamTCI #Tesla #TeslaElectricSemi #TeslaSemi #TCITransportation pic.twitter.com/bNRekZqMfO

— TCI Transportation (@tci_leasing) April 6, 2018

After the visit, the company confirmed that they ordered 50 Tesla Semi electric trucks – one of the biggest orders to date.

Other important orders include 125 electric trucks from UPS, 50 trucks from Bee’ah, and 20 Tesla Semi electric trucks from FedEx.

TCI Transportation operates a fleet of “over 2,000 trucks, tractors and trailers,” which they rent or lease to customers.

At the unveiling event last, Tesla unveiled two electric truck options with 300 and 500 miles of range.

After Tesla revealed the pricing of its electric semi trucks, we learned that the 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.

This means that TCI Transportation’s order alone is worth between $7.5 million and $9 million.

Tesla first started taking reservations with a $5,000 deposit per truck, but has later changed the listed deposit price to $20,000 for a “base reservation” of the production version and the full $200,000 for the “Founders Series” truck.

The company is working to bring the Tesla Semi to production next year.