First Tesla Semi Rolls Off High-Volume Production Line

https://electrek.co/2026/04/29/tesla-semi-first-truck-high-volume-production-line/

by m463 • 3 months ago

68 122 3 months ago

electrek.co

alterom• 3 months ago

"High volume"?

Coming from Tesla, I'll believe it after they actually ship a high volume of those units.

doctorwho42• 3 months ago

0 is a high volume for something that was supposed to start rolling off the production line back in 2019....

nubinetwork• 3 months ago

Usually I'd say better late than never, but you have to wonder why anyone would buy anything from tesla because of the promises and delays...

Zetaphor• 3 months ago

Bonus points if the body panels don't fall off and it can drive through a puddle

rayiner5• 3 months ago

The Model Y is neck-and-neck with the Toyota RAV4 as the most widely sold car model in the world.

adrian_b• 3 months ago

Whenever such claims were made, it was correctly pointed that Tesla makes very few models, so their sales per model may be higher than for other vendors even when the total number of sold cars is higher for their competitors, where the sales are distributed over many models.

There are Chinese vendors who sell more electric cars than Tesla.

SapporoChris2• 3 months ago

I am not convinced this is true. But perhaps you are using different criteria than this source.

For example the Toyota Corolla has sold 50 million, the Model Y, slightly over 2 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_automobil...

SideburnsOfDoom6• 3 months ago

Toyota RAV4, the most widely sold car model in the world.

Nope.

Widely sold cars are the likes of e.g Toyota Corolla, VW Golf, Honda Civic, Ford Fiesta, Toyota Camry and Hilux. The other reply gives the link. The RAV4 isn't ones of these.

orwin4• 3 months ago

I don't believe you. Can we have some numbers?

donkyrf4• 3 months ago

meanwhile Freightliner, Volvo, and BYD already have active fleets.

claytongulick• 3 months ago

I don't understand the point you're making, are you saying that because there are already electric semi's on the market, Tesla shouldn't compete?

Or are you being critical that Tesla didn't enter the market first?

If it's the second point, are you accurately comparing the vehicles and their capabilities?

donkyrf4• 3 months ago

It's not newsworthy. There are more than a dozen companies shipping electric semis in low quantities, and at least three who have been shipping and supporting them for years. Anybody who thinks this the Tesla Semi is notable should go learn about the existing market.

Tesla announced this thing a decade ago and they rolled one off of a theoretical line. Who cares?

There's nothing new here. There's no new information about this late-landing product. There's no story of huge guaranteed bookings, or new unexpected capabilities. It's a non-story.

As for your demand that I provide an accurate product comparison -- driver reviews routinely indicate that the 'driver at the center' seating position makes it harder for truckers to actually do their work, because they can't easily reach out their window to access terminals, perform document exchanges, etc.

So, I'll augment my position: not only is this a non-story... it's a non-story about a vehicle with a notable design flaw.

mlmonkey4• 3 months ago

But do they have Self Driving? A Semi with self-driving would be a game changer. I just got FSD v14.3.2 and it is quite impressive. I drove all over the Bay Area today (SF -> East Bay -> PA -> RWC -> back) and didn't have to touch the steering wheel practically at all.

donkyrf4• 3 months ago

They have ADAS systems. And Volvo is already working with Aurora which is doing live tests of actual self driving, similar to Waymo.

There's no news here.

Self-driving is no longer the future of Tesla. That stock pump has largely run its course, and is being replaced by AI and the robot army.

Once SpaceX goes public, SpaceX will acquire Tesla (solving Musk's control issues with Tesla stock), and that'll be the end of Musk pretending to care about cars.

masklinn9• 3 months ago

In Europe I’m pretty sure every brand has e trucks: Mercedes, daf, Renault, Scania, …

Animats2• 3 months ago

Nice.

Tesla claims they will "ramp up" production to 50,000 units per year. When does the 100th unit roll off the line? Let's see some actuals. Tesla's volume and delivery time estimates do not have a good history of reliability. Volvo has 5,000 electric semitrucks on the road right now.

Tesla also announced that MDB Drayage is using Tesla tractors to haul container chassis around the Port of Los Angeles.[1] But the pictures show a Tesla tractor hauling an ordinary box semitrailer, not a container on a container chassis. The MDB Drayage is just a three-week test, too. Drayage is almost the ideal use.

[1] https://electrek.co/2026/04/29/tesla-semi-drayage-operator-m...

narrator2• 3 months ago

The Tesla semi is the only truck with a 500 mile range. So it does have an advantage over other electric trucks for long-haul trucking.

7e2• 3 months ago

Tesla has a history of exaggerating the ranges of their vehicles to an extent that competitors do not.

darth_avocado3• 3 months ago

My model 3 also “has” 350+ mile range. Barely goes 270 in the real world with conservative driving. Trucking needs a lot more.

Animats2• 3 months ago

500 miles with what load?

Pepe's Towing, the heavy towing company in LA with a very popular YouTube channel, has two questions for drivers whose trucks need to be recovered or uprighted - "What's your cargo?", and "How much does it weigh?". (Pepe's comments that most drivers who roll over a truck cannot answer either question, which has a lot to do with why they rolled over.)

apexalpha3• 3 months ago

500 miles with what weight?

aidenn04• 3 months ago

A 30 minute charge means each charger can service a maximum of 48 tractors per day, and realistically probably less than that. I wonder how many trucks fill at a typical diesel filling station per day.

tiffanyh• 3 months ago

~10 min to fill diesel semi.

So electric can only service 1/3 of semi, when truck stop is at full capacity.

mzi• 3 months ago

But you can go 1500 miles on a full tank, so with electricity you have to account for three times as many vehicles as well (given the stated range is correct)

Teever• 3 months ago

My first job was pumping gas at regular neighbour gas station and one day a semi rolled in because he was low on gas. He insisted that we use both diesel pumps on the pump so that it would take faster and it still took forever. I can't remember if he filled both side of his truck but if he did that would have required him to go around the island to get the other side tank.

I've only been to a cardlock station a few times but the pumps seem like regular pumps.

I just looked it up and apparently regular gas station pumps in Canada are limited to 38 L/min (10 US gal/min) but some cardlock stations can have larger pumps with a higher rate on them.

If a semi truck has two saddle tanks that's 200-300 gallons, but some trucks can apparently carry more? I'm not an expert on this, But I can reach out to a friend who owns a crane and trucking company if someone else doesn't chime in with a more detailed response.

So at 200-300 gallons and 10 gallons per minute it can take 20-30 minutes to fill a truck.

ticulatedspline• 3 months ago

stats vary. seems ~250 is common (2x 125 gals) and long haul ranges up to 2,000 miles.

Though another way to think of filling up is miles per minute. At 10Gal/Min and 7MPG that's pumping 70 miles a minute into the tank.

an 80% charge in 30 minutes on a 500 mile range battery is ~13 Miles a minute so roughly 5x slower

bombcar• 3 months ago

Truck stop pumps can do 30 GPM "on both sides" as they have two pumps connected to one bay.

There are faster (600 GPM or more) but those are specialized for loading boats, etc; the air can't escape the tank fast enough to use those on a truck.

shawn_w• 3 months ago

I don't know about exact rates, but diesel pumps in banks intended for semis have a larger diameter nozzle that flows faster than the normal sized ones, yeah. They won't fit diesel cars/vans/light trucks.

ZeroGravitas2• 3 months ago

Some Chinese EVs have charge ports on both sides and can be charged faster by using both at the same time.

Not quite as elegant as the new flash chargers that rival the Tesla truck chargers with megawatt speeds but interesting.

defrost3• 3 months ago

Have you seen the demo's of "truck pack" batteries being removed from prime mover, transferred to charge station, replaced with already charged truck pack, all done with a mini fork lift?

It's a 15 minute roll in / roll out kind of turn around.

The game's not over and the big transport operators (eg: Rio Tinto mine fleets moving a billion tonne per annum, etc) are still doing the R&D pipeline and trialling pilots.

zdragnar• 3 months ago

This has been tried before for public use and failed for all of the obvious reasons.

It should get adoption from companies big enough to run their own fleets (such as the mining company mentioned) but it won't be a suitable method for a good percentage of the long haul trucks in the States.

With that said, I would think chargers should be fine for a lot of those trucks if the infrastructure builds out for them. The drivers are already taking breaks every few hours by regulation, so they can top off rather than going from empty to full.

tacticus• 3 months ago

Have you seen the demo of what you can get with some wires and low friction traction options :P

DonHopkins3• 3 months ago

I've seen Tesla's fake robots too. Maybe they can pay people who lost their jobs to DOGE to dress up in Spandex and dance like robots to replace the batteries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsNc4nEX3c4

masklinn9• 3 months ago

It's a 15 minute roll in / roll out kind of turn around.

Now you just need every gas station in the US to stock a bunch of swappable batteries for every semi brand. It's a great idea s long as you're not bound by any sort of realistic expectation.

aidenn04• 3 months ago

This is a non-sequitur for Tesla's Semi truck which does not support this. It's also possible to build trucks with larger batteries and faster chargers.

mlmonkey4• 3 months ago

Could they automate the "grab the charging cable and plug it in" part (as well as the "take the cable out and stow it away" part)? Trucks would then be able to just pull in, charge up and pull out quickly.

solid_fuel2• 3 months ago

Automating the part that takes 1 minute is not really going to make a difference when the charging takes 29 more.

HWR_14• 3 months ago

Seems like about 10 minutes, and a single pump averages around 100 a day (although guessing that second one could have some serious rounding)

AtlasBarfed3• 3 months ago

I think we should do is have a second trailer that basically functions as the primary battery pack. The tractor's pack is back up or range extension

So when a semi pulls into a truck stop, you swap that caboose cab with a fully charged one.

danaw5• 3 months ago

so you have massive batteries just sitting on chargers waiting for the next truck to come by? seems expensive

xyst• 3 months ago

I am willing to bet this semi underperforms in all relevant categories. Just like the rest of their overpriced consumer products.

delichon• 3 months ago

Tesla enters high-volume production with a meaningful lead on price and range.

I'll take that bet on price and range. And I'd bet it'll have lower cost of ownership than diesel.

danaw5• 3 months ago

i'll take that bet

OccamsMirror• 3 months ago

I wonder how truckers are going to like having to get up and walk over to the door to talk to gate security or hand over paperwork.

Feels like a dumb design to me.

chopete3• 3 months ago

50,000 vehicles per year capacity is a lot. Is there really demand for so many vehicles?.

> This makes the Tesla Semi the lowest-priced Class 8 battery electric tractor on the market,

How much is the difference?. Critical details left out.

> specs confirm a 500-mile range

Aren't there trucks with this range already?

> "Tesla Semi as a Service" model is needed to eliminate the capital expenditure barrier entirely,

Good but how is this novel?

Mashimo3• 3 months ago

At least the Mercedes-Benz eActros a6000 has only 500 km range.

danaw5• 3 months ago

as we know from tesla none of these claims will actually come to fruition once these reach customers

masklinn9• 3 months ago

Longuest I know of in Europe is Volvo’s claims of 700 on the new FH Aero ER. Renault and Iveco are at 600. And that would be at 90kph.

However manufacturers of euro models may not bother extending range given given the driving regulations: drivers can only drive 4.5h before a mandatory 45mn rest break, so as long as the truck does 400km[0] and can charge fast enough in 45mn to do that again afterwards[1] it’s probably going to do the job for long range trucking.

On the other hand, the eu allows electric semis to weigh 4 tonnes more than diesel, in the US it’s just 2000lbs and not every state has implemented that.

[0] 4.5h * 90kph

[1] assuming the fastest charge rates are 10~80, that means a 0-100 range of 580km to hit the sweet spot of 400km on 80~10, which matches Renault and Iveco, Volvo's FH Aero ER page talks about 20~80 which gets you to 670km

orwin4• 3 months ago

Yeah, EU regulations for truck drivers definitely make the switch from diesel to EV easier than in the US.

7e2• 3 months ago

Tesla is trying to escape launching the semi TEN YEARS after announcing it. Instead, they are attempting to launch a mere nine years after announcing it.

The Pepsi trials with this truck were a disaster, we’ll see if they fixed the numerous problems.

AtlasBarfed3• 3 months ago

Can you provide more detail on the Pepsi trials? I haven't read anything about it

aggakake• 3 months ago

With the Frito Lay trials there were numerous cases of the Tesla trucks dying and needing to be towed by ICE trucks.

calmbonsai• 3 months ago

Uh...does Electrek.co not do basic math or understand how factories (and markets) are valued? This is waaaay too early to judge anything.

The "milestone that matters" is $/defect/volume. Until this factory has measurable volume and measurable costs for defects on that volume, it's not an actual factory.

milleramp• 3 months ago

I hope so. Regardless of who does it, generations of children in Los Angeles growing up in the corridors of the 5,10,110,210,405,605,710 freeways have asthma, likely caused from the soot of diesel trucks. Edit, couldn't leave out the worst experience in the US, i405.

comrh• 3 months ago

You can't discount the dust from the tires either unfortunately

levocardia• 3 months ago

(which electric cars and trucks also reduce, because of regenerative braking)

coreyh14444• 3 months ago

Born in 1975 in LA and have asthma. I suppose I'm pretty smart compared to most, but I do wonder if they had removed leaded gasoline earlier if I would have had a few more IQ points. So, yes, please do root for electric transportation!

ZeroGravitas2• 3 months ago

The Chinese EV truck market is already bigger than the entire US truck market.

Tesla has some lofty goals but sometimes it feels like that story about the pottery class where the teacher offered to grade by weight alone.

The moral of that story is that churning out lots of something is a good way to learn what you are doing and get better at it.

ben_w2• 3 months ago

Indeed. Two ironies: I was just thinking about this with SpaceX getting all the practice with launches. Also, China being theoretically communist and the US theoretically capitalist, yet the US is the one with limited choice while China has so many brands.

bigtex• 3 months ago

Doesn't this need a 2019 added to the headline?

First Tesla Semi Rolls Off High-Volume Production Line

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