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Tesla Semi completes first 500-mile journey with full load

All-electric Class 8 truck finishes test run weighing 81,000 pounds

Tesla’s all-electric Class 8 Semi truck has taken an 81,000-pound load on a 500-mile run, according to CEO Elon Musk. (Photo: Tesla)

The Tesla Semi has completed a 500-mile trip with a load weighing 81,000 pounds, Tesla owner Elon Musk tweeted Saturday.

The first test run was an important step for the Austin, Texas-based company’s all-electric Class 8 commercial truck, which was supposed to be in production in 2019.

Tesla’s Semi program has suffered repeated delays, including the departure of a key executive and supply chain issues. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) first announced the Semi-truck back in 2017.

The Semi truck’s first deliveries are scheduled to PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay sometime over the next several weeks. Tesla has already installed a Megacharger on a Frito-Lay distribution site in Modesto, California.


Along with PepsiCo, the Semi has attracted thousands of orders from fleets. Mass production of the Semi — up to 50,000 units per year — is expected to take place at Tesla’s Austin Gigafactory, which also produces the Model Y electric vehicle.

According to Tesla, the Semi will be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 20 seconds for a fully loaded truck with a combined gross combination weight of 82,000 pounds. The estimated fuel savings versus a conventional diesel-powered truck is $200,000 over three years.

The Semi was previously priced at $150,000 for the 300-mile range version and $180,000 for the 500-mile truck, according to previous information on the Tesla website. It’s unclear if prices have changed.

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17 Comments

  1. Emile

    I have several questions. I’m a owner/operator and on most days if possible I drive over 500 miles. Why aren’t they making them with a longer range. I’m also from Wyoming so there are a lot of mountains and below 0 temperatures. Will you get 500 miles of range driving weighing 80,000 lbs pulling the mountains. When it’s- 10° f. I find it hard to believe.
    When they can on a regular basis, I’m all for it.

  2. AK

    What is the weight of the truck without the load? compared to weight of diesel truck ?

    y’all dont be so eager to follow musk down this path. the man who touted bitcoin and is now running twitter into the ground..

  3. Seriously though

    A lot of good comments about this and yes the weight it’s said to have hauled. Going from 0 to 60 in what 20 seconds are the straps or load bars going to hold it before they break and the load rams the doors falling out on the road? Gee I didn’t know we were in a race with all this in the name of safety coming from we all know who and will it be governed at 60 with the speed limiters thing or does it get a pass as well as being overweight. And how much strip mining, amount of diesel used, people who gather the minerals in very poor conditions was done to make the battery for this one truck. People who think ev’s are great and the future sure are short sighted and don’t give a damn whats going on elsewhere. These batteries are un recyclable so in ten years what do we do with them? How is any of this saving the planet?

  4. Gary Holz

    I’m a truck driver the electric truck is no good for pulling doubles don’t have enough power to pull 140,000lb load and I drive over 500 miles a day. So what do I do when battery dies go to bed, I have a day cab truck.

  5. Trackrat

    Impressive. How ‘Real World’ was the route? Was it mostly downhill? Now, include grade climbing, stop and go, 100 degree ambient temps, A/C running wide open and see what the range is.

    The bigger question: when will the electric power grid and distribution be ready to support more than a fraction of the national fleet going EV? In the present state, a couple of class 8 EVs charging at the same time will crash a small town’s grid. We are several DECADES and many BILLIONS away from EV utopia.
    Nuclear power is the best technology to meet the growing demand; we should be building nuclear power plants everywhere if we are seroius about switching to EVs.

    There are numerous intercity and regional applications where EV trucks will make sense, but we are a long, long way from moving volumes of freight with anything but internal combustion.

  6. Rod kikl

    If the electric truck takes people’s jobs. How are people supposed to survive and raise their families? Because there’s no work out here because the electric took over look for big crime waves in the United States of America , I am not impressed at all. Working people should remain working people, not some robot or some electric semi truck taking jobs over from the American people

  7. Tone

    Sorry but you are incorrect there. The Tesla Semi actually can carry more than Diesel Semi. EVs get to carry 82,000 v 80,000 for Diesel and the Tesla Semi weighs about the same as a Diesel Semi. The payload was about 65,000 lbs, if I’m not mistaken.

  8. GuyNoir

    Yes, total combination weight might have been at 81k lbs but the weight of the batteries eats into the payload big time. I’m also trying to find any info about the charging times, location of charging stations (and the cost of charging, of course). Tesla may prepare theoretically for an annual output of 50k units but if/when that becomes necessary will be much further down the line. Nobody is going to give them that market share automatically. And I wish we would be finally done with the references to the 0-60 acceleration times!

Comments are closed.

Noi Mahoney

Noi Mahoney is a Texas-based journalist who covers cross-border trade, logistics and supply chains for FreightWaves. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English in 1998. Mahoney has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working for newspapers in Maryland and Texas. Contact [email protected]