Anheuser-Busch has placed an order for 40 Tesla Semi trucks, the American division of mega-brewer AB InBev announced Thursday.
The beer maker said its preorder is one of the largest placed for the long-awaited model that Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled last month. Tesla isn't making public statements about its customers or potential customers, although Jalopnik.com's list of compiled reports shows Tesla has at least 140 Semis preordered. Walmart ordered 15 last month.
The move is part of Anheuser-Busch's goal to reduce its operational carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2025. To be sure, 40 trucks would represent a fraction of the 750 total trucks in the company's dedicated fleet, which delivers products from breweries to local distributors. Those drives are a couple hundred miles, within the Semi's 500 mile range, said James Sembrot, senior director of logistics strategy.
Anheuser-Busch settled on 40 semitrailers thinking it would be a good place to start, Sembrot said, since the earliest the company could receive its orders is likely 2019. The semitrailers will be fully electric and equipped with Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot system.
The brewer placed the order, putting in an undisclosed dollar amount, but Sembrot said it's too early to say whether it will buy them outright or if one of its dedicated fleet partners will buy them.
"The important thing was to get the Tesla Semis reserved so we have our place in line, and we'll address details later on," he said.
Shares of Tesla were up fractionally Thursday.