According to CNBC, Tesla is opening its first factory for high-volume production of the Semi in Sparks, Nevada, as CEO Elon Musk pushes the company into heavy-duty electric trucks. Tesla first unveiled the Semi in 2017 and began selling it in limited quantities to early customers, including PepsiCo, in 2022. A livestream of Thursday's ribbon-cutting event is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET, or 6 p.m. local time.

The factory opening comes as Tesla faces rising competition in its core electric-vehicle business and as higher diesel costs create a potential opening for commercial trucking to shift to EVs. On Tuesday, ZET SCALE said it selected Tesla as its primary original equipment manufacturer for an initial order of 2,500 trucks and aims to order more than 10,000 electric trucks from multiple providers. Einride also said it agreed to order 500 Tesla Semi trucks, with some deployments planned this month.

On Tesla's last earnings call in July, Musk said the company's Full Self-Driving system would be available for the Semi in the near future, but he did not give a date. He said autonomous driving is essential for trucking and that Tesla expects to get self-driving working on the Semi probably around the end of this year or early next year. Tesla says the long-range Semi can travel an estimated 500 miles on a full battery, while the standard version has an estimated range of 325 miles. The company also plans to bring the Semi to Europe.