Tesla picks Texas for Semi production

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Updated Jul 27, 2020

Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, July 23, 2020:

Tesla Semi set to be built in Texas, still on track for 2021
Texas has long been known for its insatiable appetite for trucks, so it’s only fitting that electric automaker Tesla announced Wednesday that is has tapped the Lone Star State for its Cybertruck Gigafactory.

Tesla’s fourth U.S. Gigafactory will be located just outside Austin and charged with building the company’s first electric pickup, along with Model Y and Model 3 for the East Coast, and the company’s long-awaited Semi.

In April, Tesla said it would shift first Semi deliveries to 2021 – the second time initial rollout had been delayed since it was unveiled in 2017. When the sleek zero-emission tractor was unveiled in Hawthorne, California – the home Tesla Motors’ design center and company founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket factory – production was penciled in for 2019, and orders began to trickle in from the likes of UPS, FedEx, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch, J.B. Hunt and Walmart.

PS Logistics acquires Arkansas-based flatbed fleet
Birmingham, Alabama-based PS Logistics announced this week it has completed its acquisition of substantially all assets of Diamond State Trucking, RDA Tractor and RDA Trailer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PS Logistics says the acquisition will further strengthen its operations in the Southeast and provide it with an additional terminal in Malvern, Arkansas, where Diamond State is headquartered.

The Diamond State Trucking acquisition continues PS Logistics’ acquisition strategy of partnering with families and owners within the flatbed trucking segment. Since 2012, PS Logistics has acquired 18 trucking and brokerage operations.

According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data, Diamond State operates 42 trucks.