Another order of 50 semis, these from Bee'ah in UAE

[SMAlset]

Nice size orders seem to keep coming in from all over now that they've opened them up overseas. Just read this article in Electrek on Bee'ah. Tesla Semi receives another large 50-truck pre-order

So where are all these semi's going to be manufacturered?

 

[deadcat]

Since the Fremont factory is out of room & completely occupied with the Model 3, my best bet would be their European factory. Believe me, I heard about it only recently, but Tesla appears to have a re-assembly plant in Netherlands capable of 450 cars a week. It's a way to evade European import tax. It's only 11 acres, or about 0.47 million square ft., which is a tenth of the Fremont location. Not to mention, the Semi will be rather well-received in Europe, much like EVs.

 

[SmartElectric]

No. Unlikely. The "factory" in Netherlands is not set up for body panel or frame manufacturing, not to mention motors, battery packs or otherwise.

Consensus is that Tesla can purchase existing facility near Fremont, make the panels and other "small" stamping at Fremont, motors and battery at Gigafactory, and frames purchased from third party, likely from an existing large truck OEM.

Assembly can be far less automated for frame+systems, as the primary cost of the vehicle is the massive battery pack which itself will likely entirely share battery modules with high volume vehicle like Model 3.

Europe market may not require Europe production for a low volume vehicle like this, the tariff issues are less important to viability, as the European competition in the truck EV space is less than in regions like China or US.