Grocery Giant Plans to Buy 10 Tesla Electric Tractors

Food and drug retailer Albertsons has announced plans to purchase 10 Tesla all-electric Semi tractors for its Southern California stores.

The electric trucks will be added to its fleets under the Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions names. Albertsons said the Semi models will be able to travel 300 to 500 miles on a single charge fully loaded, and use less than 2 kilowatt hours of energy per mile.

This suggests that the company may be buying both the base model Semi. which Tesla said\ will have a range of 300 miles, and the more expensive extended range model with a 500-mile range. The base model lists for $150,000 and the extended range model for $180,000.

“Advancing supply chain efficiency and sustainability is an important goal for our company,” said Tom Nartker, vice president of transportation at Albertsons. “We’re excited to pilot this expansion of our transportation program with trucks that help us limit our overall carbon footprint.”

The Tesla Semi purchase is part of Albertsons’ commitment to running a safe, sustainable fleet at its 2,300 stores across the country. The company is a partner and supporter of the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program and its fleet of more than 1,400 trucks is SmartWay certified. The company also said that 92% of its trucks operated by third-party carriers are SmartWay certified.