Tesla has been selected as the primary manufacturer for an order of 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 trucks. The order was organized by a shippers’ alliance whose founding members include Microsoft and PepsiCo, and its organizers called it the largest electric truck order to date in the US.
Catalyst Mobility, the clean transportation nonprofit formerly known as CALSTART, announced the deal on Tuesday with the Smart Freight Centre. The two groups said the single order nearly doubles the US electric Class 8 fleet.
Their release does not say how many of the 2,500 trucks will be Tesla Semis. It names Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo as secondary manufacturers that carriers can use instead.
Tesla‘s Semi account went further in a post at 2:38 p.m. ET, about five hours after the release went live.
“With 2,500 Semis on order, this will double the entire US electric Class 8 fleet,” the account wrote.
The post counts all 2,500 trucks as Semis and says the order will double the fleet. The organizers’ release says it nearly doubles the fleet and names three other manufacturers as options.
Neither the release nor Tesla disclosed the value of the order, the price per truck or a delivery schedule.
The Order
The order was organized through the Zero-Emission Truck Shipper-Carrier Alliance Leading Electrification, known as ZET SCALE. Catalyst Mobility and the Smart Freight Centre operate the program jointly.
The alliance pooled freight demand from its member shippers. It then ran what it described as an independent, competitive request for proposals, scoring truck makers on price, range, charging capability and production capacity.
Tesla came out as the primary original equipment manufacturer for the initial 2,500 trucks.
“We are proud to have been the primary selection in this RFP and look forward to giving shippers and carriers a new competitive edge,” said Dan Priestley, Director for the Tesla Semi Program.
Minutes after the Semi account’s post, Priestley shared it on X, writing, “Just the start.”
ZET Financial, a leasing company the release describes as a strategic partner to the alliance, is issuing the purchase order. It will deploy the trucks through its fair market value lease program.
The first round of deployments will be concentrated in 10 freight hubs.
Four are on the West Coast: Southern California and Los Angeles, Northern California and Stockton, Central California and Bakersfield, and Seattle and Tacoma.
Three are in Texas: Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. The rest are the Chicago area, Atlanta, and Northern New Jersey with Newark and New York City.
“You can have good technology and still not have a market,” said Michael Berube, President and CEO of Catalyst Mobility. “What is different about ZET SCALE is that the demand was organized so manufacturers could price at scale.”
The Alliance
Microsoft and PepsiCo are the only founding shippers the release names. It says each supports the initiative “through different levels of engagement and demand signaling.” It does not say what freight volume either has committed.
Nico De Golia, Director of Sustainability for Cloud Supply Chain Global Operations at Microsoft, said the company’s participation signals demand so that the low-carbon option becomes competitive for moving its cloud infrastructure.
PepsiCo has run Tesla Semis since the first deliveries in December 2022.
A CALSTART page last updated in April set out the program’s terms. The target was a joint purchase of up to 10,000 Class 8 battery-electric trucks with Megawatt Charging System capability and a 400-mile range, at a price that would pay back within three years on total cost of ownership.
The alliance had by then collected freight volume data from more than 11 shippers and received responses from eight manufacturers. It said deployment was expected to begin in late 2026.
The Long Range Semi’s 500-mile rating exceeds the 400-mile specification. The Standard Range version, rated at about 325 miles, falls short of it.
The release puts the alliance’s ambition at 10,000 trucks “and beyond,” and says it is recruiting more shippers and carriers to expand into new regions.
The Lease
ZET Financial’s website describes its ZET Lease as a fair market value walk-away lease with 100% financing and no money down. The site lists the Tesla Semi as the program’s primary OEM.
The release says the lease structure removes residual-value risk from the fleet operator, a risk that has kept many carriers out of the market.
ZET Financial says it has more than 25 years in Class 8 leasing and has originated more than $1 billion in equipment leases.
“Our thorough cost assessment accounts for every major cost driver that affects the truck, including financing, electricity versus diesel fuel, and maintenance,” said Peter Flynn, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of ZET Financial.
The release does not name the lenders funding the leases or say how much capital is committed.
The Other Manufacturers
Kenworth is the heavy-truck brand of PACCAR.
RIDE is based in Lancaster, California, and was founded in 2023 as the US spinoff of BYD. It builds buses and trucks for the US market, including the 8TT, a Class 8 battery-electric tandem-axle truck.
The release does not say which Volvo, Kenworth or RIDE models carriers could choose, or at what price.
California’s truck voucher program already shows a similar split. In the round covering January 2025 to February 2026, the Tesla Semi accounted for 965 of 1,067 applications for Class 8 tractor vouchers, according to an analysis by the International Council on Clean Transportation.
Daimler, PACCAR and Volvo together received fewer than 100, the group said.
The Fleet It Is Measured Against
The release links its “nearly doubles” claim to CALSTART’s zero-emission truck dashboard but does not give the size of the current fleet.
CALSTART’s most recent market report, published in June, counted 72,309 zero-emission trucks deployed in the US through December 2025, from Class 2b to Class 8.
Cargo vans made up the overwhelming majority. The report counted 12,158 new zero-emission cargo vans in the second half of 2025 and 838 new units across all other segments combined.
The heavy-duty count is far smaller. CALSTART counted 2,509 heavy-duty zero-emission trucks deployed nationwide from 2017 through 2025, Trucks, Parts, Service reported in June, citing the report.
The report also says all 198 hydrogen fuel cell trucks deployed to date sit in its heavy-duty truck segment. Not every zero-emission heavy-duty truck is battery-electric.
An order of 2,500 trucks is about equal to all the heavy-duty zero-emission trucks CALSTART counted from 2017 through 2025.
In March, Tesla said it had “a few hundred” Semis in commercial operation, with 13.5 million miles logged.
Where Production Stands
The order adds to a book that has grown quickly this year.
Einride said in August it would buy 500 Semis over 24 months to serve Amazon and other customers. WattEV signed for 370 trucks in May, and Big F Transport ordered 40 in the same month.
If all 2,500 trucks go to Tesla, the new order would be five times the size of the Einride deal.
The first truck came off the high-volume line at the Nevada factory on April 29. The dedicated plant, adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada, is designed for an eventual 50,000 trucks a year.
Tesla‘s second-quarter update, published on July 22, stated that “Tesla Semi remains on track for production this year at our new factory in Nevada.”
On the earnings call the same day, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said Tesla had started Semi production.
The production Semi comes in two trims, certified by the California Air Resources Board at 548 kWh and 822 kWh.
The company said in August it would unveil the Semi’s European specifications at IAA Transportation in Hannover, which ran from September 15 to 20.
The release says the alliance will concentrate trucks in dense freight hubs to raise the use of both trucks and chargers.
It does not say who will build or pay for charging at the 10 hubs.
