After almost nine years of promises, delays and prototypes, the Tesla Semi has finally reached its first customers. Tesla has begun deliveries of its electric Class 8 truck and officially opened the dedicated production facility in Sparks, Nevada.

The production Semi comes in two flavours: Standard Range, with a claimed 325-mile range, and Long Range, capable of 500 miles.

Both figures apply at the truck’s full 82,000lb gross combination weight. Tesla says that dropping the load to around 60,000lb could push the Long Range truck to roughly 600 miles.

Power comes from an 800kW three-motor drivetrain, while an 822kWh battery uses Tesla’s own 4680 cells.

The company says efficiency has improved dramatically compared with early development targets, with energy consumption now around 1,700Wh per mile.

Charging is suitably enormous. Tesla’s Megacharger system can deliver up to 1.2MW, and the company demonstrated charging from 3 to 60 per cent in approximately 30 minutes.

Tesla plans to have more than 30 Semi charging stations with over 200 megawatt-capable charging posts operating by the end of the year.

The customer list is already substantial. PepsiCo, DHL, US Foods, ArcBest, Einride and several other logistics companies have taken or committed to Semis, with Einride alone ordering 500.

Tesla claims the factory could eventually produce 50,000 trucks a year, but getting anywhere near that figure will be the real test.

The company has not disclosed official production volumes or pricing, although reports suggest the 500-mile version could cost around $290,000.

That is considerably more than Tesla’s original 2017 estimate. Nevertheless, with diesel prices climbing and fleets increasingly focused on operating costs, the Semi arrives at an interesting moment.

After nine years, Tesla has finally built the truck. Now it needs to build enough of them.