News: Does this Tesla Semi Truck Picture Mean the Company Is Ready to Deliver Trucks Or …?

tesla semi truck mega charger
image: Tesla

Tesla recently released this Tesla Semi truck image – four rigs parked at what appears to be Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory facility at a Megacharger installation. These big Class 8 trucks appear to be production-ready. Three of them are configured as longer-distance over-the-road trucks, and one in the back is a smaller “day cab”. Does it mean that the company is ready to deliver these trucks to customers? The latest report says that the Tesla Semi, Tesla Cybertruck, and the Tesla Roadster are all delayed to 2023.

Here is a report from Electrek on this subject.

The Megacharger installation is a wonder in itself. There are unofficial reports that a single Megacharger station can deliver up to 1.5-1.6 MW (MegaWatt) of energy to a semi-truck. Another way of looking at it is – the Megacharger is said to provide a semi-truck with up to 400 miles of range in 30 minutes. This is a huge amount of energy.

For comparison, the current most powerful ElectrifyAmerica public chargers can deliver up to 0.35 MW (or 350 kW) of charge. If this is true, then a Megacharger can deliver 4.5 times more energy than the current most powerful public fast charger. An installation like this requires a large static battery bank as a buffer to the grid.

We hope to learn more about the Tesla Semi Truck soon. I have a CDL, so I would love to test drive one of these big rigs as well.

Here is a close look at the Hyundai Xcient hydrogen fuel-cell electric semi-truck from the LA Auto Show.