The Tesla Semi Truck Is Finally Here After Years of Waiting—Can It Haul the Expectations?

Back in 2017, Tesla announced that it was getting into the semi-truck game with the introduction of its first heavy truck, the straightforwardly named "Semi." While the rig was promised to come sooner, it took five years for Tesla to make good and deliver its first electric haulers on December 1, 2022.

That's right, Tesla has finally made a delivery of an actual production Semi truck.  It's going to PepsiCo, which had two trucks on display with Pepsi and Frito Lay livery, along with two others in white, during Tesla's announcement of the Semi's realization.

During the event, Elon Musk first drove up in one of the aforementioned white Semis, then apologized and thanked everyone for their patience of waiting five years to make the Semi a reality. He also explained why Tesla is building a Semi, apparently a response to semi trucks being responsible for around 20 percent of emissions despite representing just one percent of vehicle sales in the U.S. He also stated that it's very unhealthy to live near a highway with diesel semi trucks running around and just how much noise pollution they also create. That, said Musk, is why Tesla making Semi is in line with its goal of creating sustainable energy and why it is making a vehicle that isn't typical of most car manufacturers.

The fact that Musk drove in one of those trucks—right towards the audience, in fact—served a bit of an additional purpose than just showing one in motion. During the presentation, Musk explained that driving the Semi is like driving a Tesla car. That even includes its driving performance. He stated that "it looks like an elephant moving like a cheetah, fast to accelerate, fast to brake," and has "three times the power of a diesel semi on the roads today."

The Tesla Semi, according to Tesla, will come with a 500-mile range with its 1,000-volt battery power system. Oh, and more vehicles are coming with that 1-kV system soon, too. That will be an important point later.

It's a Triple Motor with a Plaid-Based Dual Motor Axle

See All 39 Photos39

Tesla also explained that the Semi's drivetrain, HVAC, hardware, controls, and software are all based off of already existing Tesla technology and equipment. Especially its drive system, which is a triple-motor setup, with one axle based on the Model S and X Plaid's dual motors and used during acceleration.

At a steady cruise, those motors decouple from the axles, allowing them to freewheel and increase the Semi's efficiency. The single motor takes over and is used for all of the highway driving. Despite that coupling and decoupling, the transition between acceleration axle engagement to standard driving will be seamless, according to Musk.

Tesla also had videos demonstrating the truck's durability and survivability that showed it running over objects, running through deep puddles, loose dirt roads, snow covered roads, and even washboard paths to prove its ready to tackle myriad driving scenarios. Tesla added that its Semis were running 24/7 between Sparks/Reno/Tahoe and Freemont to ensure readiness to meet the demands of heavy hauling.

Taking On Truly Heavy Loads

The Semi is capable of towing to a gross vehicle weight of 82,000 pounds, the maximum allowed by law. That's 2,000 pounds more than diesel rigs are permitted, a concession made by regulators to partially offset the weight of an electric semi's battery pack. The single highway motor is more than enough to drive it normally, which Tesla showed by taking it to the Donner Pass (an infamous six-percent grade in California) and filming carrying its full load and passing a diesel semi—while accelerating. Regen braking is also another advantage for the Tesla Semi over traditional ICE semi trucks. As the Tesla Semi is going down those grades, its pilots need not worry about missing a gear and screwing up the Jake brake. It also uses less brakes than an ICE truck because of the Regen. "We get to the bottom of the hill and we have cold brakes," said Musk, "That's a safety improvement for the driver and other drivers on the road." The safety technology that Tesla says it has included in the Semi is also impressive. Per Tesla, it is capable of stopping a truck from jackknifing with its unique motor setup along with its traction and chassis controls. It's all "seamless to the driver," said Musk.

It Can Travel 500 Miles Without Charging

See All 39 Photos39

Tesla then showed off a graph of a 500-mile test run from Fremont to San Diego with it hauling just under its 80,000-pound capacity as a fully production version with "no aero tricks." Musk promised that Tesla will release the full eight-hour video with no cuts, but tonight showed off a time-lapse version. At no point during that full 500-mile run did the Tesla Semi stop to do any charging, though there was one break for the driver to use the bathroom and take the mandatory break period for commercial drivers.

Need more details? Tesla says it used a fully enclosed trailer and drove down I-5 at around 82 mph. Another advantage the Semi has beyond its large, 1,000-volt battery pack to make that 500-mile run are its aerodynamics. It works in conjunction with the trailer it pulls to minimize drag and be as efficient as possible at speed. All told, the Semi only consumes around 2 kWh per mile, which would put the potential battery at one MegaWatt (MW) hour of capacity. That's over 33 times the consumption a standard home uses in a day.

Driver Centric, and Not Just Because Of The Driving Position

See All 39 Photos39

Tesla's advances include more than the electronics. The interior is built around the driver, and not simply because of its a centralized seating. First, it has your typical wireless charging and a USB-C port for mobile devices along with convenient areas to store those devices. The standard Tesla Semi is also bigger than a typical day cab truck, which can be surprisingly cramped if you've never been inside one. Anyone over six feet tall will be more than comfortable.

It also has productivity assisting features like a one-button rear dump to help with loading trailers (not really innovative as many heavy trucks dump or "kneel" for loading), along with built in safety checks that the driver can operate within the cab and help meet safety checks while on their drive. Finally, unlike Tesla's latest passenger vehicles, the Semi has a round steering wheel but does use the typical Tesla wheel touch controls and scroll wheel. It also features dual touchscreen monitors to allow for multiple views so the driver can monitor the load, check blind spots, and use guidance without having to swap views on a single screen. Rather than use a portrait screen layout like you see in the S or X, both screens are in landscape layout with the steering wheel in-between.

Version 4 Tesla Charging is 1 MegaWatt and Coming "Next Year"

See All 39 Photos39

Another surprise was Tesla showing off its new Version 4 charging system, which is a one mW DC charging system with immersion cooling, offering three times the power density while also allowing for a smaller cable versus a non-immersion-cooled cable. Tesla also announced that this charging will be used on Cybertruck, too, and come to Tesla Superchargers "next year."

The charging capability enables Semis to charge in a reasonable timeframe, which Tesla has has in the past stated means a 70-percent charge in just 30 minutes. During the latest update, Musk didn't elaborate on that or say what the recharge time is.  As we pointed out earlier, 1 MW is over 33 times more power than the average home uses in a day and, presumably, there will be more than one Semi charging at a time at any charging locations. But Musk stated that Tesla would be able to compensate for that with its use of solar energy and construction of its battery power plants that supply stored energy when needed. Musk also floated a return to nuclear power generation. But the fact is these trucks will require a ton of energy to charge, and it isn't yet clear whether existing Tesla Supercharger locations will be capable of supporting that—let alone the power grids that serve them.

Will More Than Just PepsiCo

See All 39 Photos39

Now that production has begun and deliveries are starting to take place thanks to PepsiCo's initial order, the question that must be asked is whether other trucking and freight outfits are following its lead. So far, Anheuser-Busch, Walmart, UPS and twelve other North American companies have committed to at least one Tesla Semi order since it was first announced five years ago. Other brands in Europe have also stated that they will order Semis as part of their fleets during that same time. But will more brands follow now that Tesla has shown that the production version? How many owner-operators will also take the plunge to order an EV Semi that's as easy to drive as a Tesla car?

We'll have to wait and see, but if the cost savings on diesel and brake consumption can truly be realized as Musk claims, and Tesla can build and deliver these in numbers, it's hard to argue against the investment—at least for local and medium-range hauling duties.