History of Pepsi X Energy Cola

Update: 2025-11-21

Description

Take a deep dive into one of Pepsi’s most fascinating and often-forgotten experiments: Pepsi X Energy Cola. In this video, we explore how Pepsi attempted to fuse the bold flavor of classic cola with the high-octane world of energy drinks.

You’ll learn:
✨ The origins of Pepsi X and why it was created
⚡ How it fit into the early-2000s energy drink craze
🧪 The marketing strategies, flavor profile, and limited release history
📉 Why Pepsi ultimately discontinued the brand
📦 Where Pepsi X stands today among collectors and soda fans

If you’re a lover of discontinued sodas, pop culture throwbacks, or rare beverage history, this deep dive is for you.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more soda history, retro product stories, and all things nostalgic!

Script:
Pepsi x was the very first energy cola drink released by a major brand with a higher dosage of caffeine than normal cola, along with guarana extracts.

Why it was made was from the rising popularity of nerdy drinks like red bull where in 2001, the billionth can of Red Bull was sold and every year after the drink grew larger in sales.
Even though pepsi had tried in the past with a higher caffeinated cola with Pepsi am in 1989, it failed. But with the ongoing trend a little over a decade later, Pepsi needed to tap into this market like never before.
Pepsi chose to release pepsi x in europe in yhe form of test marketing where if it had success there, it might be a hit in the united states.
Pepsi x energy was first Released in 2004 in france and soon after many other countries worldwide such as Russia, Bulgaria, philippines, finland, Japan, netherlands, brazil. I
Pepsi x energy was targeted towards young people in their teens and 20’s.
The soda itself had a red tint to it and had the taste of original pepsi with a sharper energy drink taste.

Some had said it was a taste of pepsi mixed with red bull.

In 2007, its final year in the market, Pepsi X had a marketing campaign driven by the phrase “don’t sleep at the party” with photo collages of young people at a house party playing pranks on other party goers who have fallen asleep. A big can of Pepsi X within the ad drove home that the sleeping people should have drank Pepsi x energy.
But By August 2007 as sales weren’t great, Pepsi x energy cola was discontinued and gone.

Why Pepsi x energy failed was the fact that other larger and established energy drink brands were too strong for an energy drink that tasted like Pepsi to compete.

Another reason was the fact that people who liked Pepsi thought it had too much of an energy drink taste and people who liked energy drinks didn’t want it to have such a sweet Pepsi taste. It was made for a certain group of people that was far too small for the drink to thrive.

After 2007, Pepsi didn’t give up on energy drinks with a traditional Pepsi taste. Where in countries in Latin America have seen Pepsi kick and Pepsi max energy
And in japan in 2011 at its earliest with Pepsi energy cola along with variants later on through the years with Pepsi strong, Pepsi strong shot and Pepsi refresh shot.

Taking a look at what I’ve got, I have two cans of Pepsi x from two parts of the world
The shorter can is from the Philippines and the tall slimmer can is from France.