New Tesla Heavy Duty Trucks VP Named
Tesla Vice President of Heavy Duty Trucks, Jerome Guillen
Tesla announced Jerome Guillen, formerly president of automotive, has transited to a new role as vice president of heavy duty trucks to lead production of the Tesla semi-truck program and related charging and servicing networks.
Guillen has a background in Class 8 product development and innovation. Guillen previously served as general manager of product development at Freightliner and as director of Daimler’s business innovation department.
Eventually, Guillen made the switch to Tesla and to passenger vehicles, serving as acting vice president of vehicle engineering, director of Tesla’s Model S program, vice president of worldwide sales and service and vice president of trucks and programs.
“As Tesla prepares to enter the critical heavy trucks market for the first time, Mr. Guillen will now leverage his extensive background in this industry to focus on and lead all aspects of the Tesla Semi program,” Tesla officials announced in a SEC filing.
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Stay InformedPre-Production & Battery Availability
The transition comes a little over a month since the company’s 2020 fourth-quarters earnings call, in which Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the Tesla Semi, a Class 8 battery-electric tractor, had finished its pre-production engineering work. Musk said the Semi would be ready to go to market later this year.
However, company officials said limited ability to get battery cells will be a challenge, which hasn’t been the first setback for Class 8.
Initially, the electric truck was introduced to the industry in 2017 and set to begin production in 2019. That date was pushed to 2020, and again delayed to this year.
