Tesla Semi delayed yet again, now coming 2021

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Don't expect any all-electric remakes of Smokey and the Bandit or Convoy featuring Tesla's Semi anytime soon, because the Big T has decided to push its big rig back to at least 2021 -- though at this point, we are beginning to suspect it will be delayed indefinitely.

Tesla announced the delay as part of its Q1 2020 investor report, and this isn't the first time that Semi has been pushed. It was initially set to go into production in 2019, but that got bumped back to 2020, and now it's 2021. Why is that the case? We don't know because Tesla didn't elaborate and hasn't responded to Roadshow's request for comment.

We do know that Tesla had initially planned to build Semi somewhere in the vicinity of its Reno Gigafactory, but whether the delay has something to do with that or just a necessity for the company to shift resources to something else is anyone's guess.

Tesla's electric semi-truck has been testing on public roads for a few of years now, and it seems relatively close to production. This is why we suspect that its continued delays are more of a logistics or profitability issue than a technology or design issue with its planned range of 500-plus miles and price tag of $150,000 to $180,000.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has suggested recently on Twitter that we can expect some kind of product update on the Semi as well as the forthcoming Roadster at some point this year, though it's not clear if this pushback is what he meant.

First published April 29.