January 29, 2021 7:15 pm EST Tesla Tesla has been promising an expanded product line beyond the S, 3, X, and Y for a handful of years now, but thus far none of those projects have amounted to anything concrete. While the company's sedans and hunch-backed crossovers continue to sell in ever increasing numbers, the battery electric roadster, pickup truck, and tractor trailer remain fugazi. When each of these three models were shown off, they were ascribed headline-grabbing stats which were impossible with then-current technology, and timelines which have come and gone without delivery. Let's start with the Roadster, which was first shown in late 2017. It promised 620 miles of range, 8-second quarter mile times, and a $200,000 price tag. Customers were asked for a $50,000 deposit, while buyers of the Founders Edition put down a full-boat $250,000 over three years ago for a car which has still not shown up. Finishing engineering this year, production starts next year. Aiming to have release candidate design drivable late summer. Tri-motor drive system & advanced battery work were important precursors. Read more Okay, so what about the Semi? The massive battery-powered truck with a claimed 0-60 time in the 5-second range and 500 miles of range has been floating around since that same launch event night in November 2017. This one, at a minimum, has been spotted testing along I-80 in California and northern Nevada. I've seen it with my own two eyes. So what's the holdup? Musk said on the Q4 earnings call that the first Semi would be delivered "by the end of 2021" once the company began production of its own 4680 battery cells. "Prototypes are easy, scaling production is very hard," said Musk of the semi. This does not even seem to take into account that Tesla does not currently have a factory in which to produce the Semi. The company's California facility is packed to the gills and Texas Giga has not been completed yet. The fact of the matter is that Tesla had previously put a priority on the Semi. On the night of its reveal, Musk claimed deliveries to customers would begin in 2019. This makes sense, as big industrial contracts are quite lucrative, and Tesla has already sold hundreds of these trucks to everyone from Walmart to UPS. You don't want to piss off a massive wealthy family like the Waltons by shipping them trucks three years late. By early 2020, the delivery date was kicked out to 2021.