“It’s real:” Tesla finally delivers Semi electric truck that “drives like a Model 3”

Tesla has marked commercial delivery of its very first Semi electric truck, five years after the huge EV was first unveiled by Elon Musk as the future of zero emissions heavy transport.

The Semis were delivered to US softdrink giant PepsiCo, the first of 100 trucks the company has ordered for use transporting goods from its Frito-Lay plant in Modesto, California, and its PepsiCo beverages factory in Sacramento.

But the place to be on Thursday night (US time) was Tesla’s Nevada gigafactory, where co-founder and CEO Musk took time away from his controversial Twitter renovations to drive home (literally) the long-awaited arrival of what he describes as “the most bad-ass rig on the road.”

Musk says the Semi, while looking like a “beast,” drives like a Model 3, due to a combination of “crazy power” and a tri-motor system that allows the truck to accelerate seamlessly, even with a full 82,000 pound (37 tonnes) load, and up a hill.

(Musk notes that – in the US, at least – electric trucks get to add an extra 2,000 pounds to their load, by law, by virtue of being electric. He doesn’t mention how much the truck weighs without any load, however.)

“This thing has crazy power relative to a diesel truck,” Musk told the crowd, adding that when it doesn’t have a load, it resembles an “elephant moving like a cheetah.”

When it does have a load, Musk says – “This thing is not sluggish in the least.

“It’s like driving a Tesla, literally,” he added later. “It’s fun, it looks awesome … so if you’re a truck driver and you want the most bad-ass rig on the road, this is it. …It’s a beast.”

Semi specs

This comes down to a new 1,000-volt power train and the afore-mentioned tri-motor system, which Musk says is like those used in the plaid Model X and Model S EVs.

Musk explains that the tri-motor power system enables two of the drive units to disconnect when the truck is cruising, so that they’re not free-spinning – to improve efficiency.

That means that for most of the time, this huge machine is being propelled along the highway by just one motor, which Musk says is about the size of a football.

“So you can pull 82,000 pounds on cruise with one tiny motor …that you can essentially hold in your hands,” he told the crowd. “That’s power density.”

The other two units, Musk says, are there for torque and acceleration, and kick in “seamlessly” when needed, such as when the driver puts their foot to the floor.

Video snippets of the 500 mile test drive conducted by the Tesla team in real conditions shows this in action, with an aerial shot of a Semi with a full load of concrete overtaking another truck on a slight hill with what looks like complete ease.

Also on show was the Semi’s regenerative braking – a standard for passenger EVs these days, but extra handy in an electric truck, for saving the driver from having to shift down through gears or constantly using the brakes with a heavy load. And it’s good for local residents, because it’s silent.

As well as saving on energy, Musk says it worth emphasising that the electric drivetrain is a “significant safety improvement” for truck drivers and for other people on the road.

“We also have excellent traction control because the precision of an electric motor is vastly better than a diesel engine,” he says, adding that there are also traction controls that automatically stop the truck from jackknifing.

“It’s doing all this safety stuff in the background. That just isn’t possible with regular diesel trucks. It’s a step change in technology in in so many ways,” Musk told the crowd.

A long time coming

As exciting as the Tesla Semi’s arrival is, it has indeed been a long time coming – as The Driven reported in October, Tesla originally aimed to deliver its Semis to PepsiCo a year ago, in 2021, but delays caused by the pandemic and supply-chain shortages put an end to that plan.

In the meantime, other truck makers have had a chance to catch up. Volvo, for example, started production of its range of heavy-duty electric trucks – the FH, the FM and the FMX – in September, taking its total electric truck offerings to a full suite of six.

But Tesla is Tesla and Musk is unfazed.

“So yeah, sorry for the delay,” he offered by way of explanation on Thursday night. “A lot has happened in the world, but here we are. It’s real.”

Musk notes that over this time, Tesla has been doing “lots of hard core testing” to make sure the Semi is up to the job.

“One thing about a commercial truck is that the reliability has to be extremely high. So it’s got to be… running continuously, it can’t break down. It’s got to handle every kind of weather – uptime is super important for any kind of semi truck. So we’ve we’ve tested durability and every kind of weather every kind of environment,” Musk said.

Charging

For charging the Semi, Musk notes Tesla has developed a megawatt-class charger – and these have already been installed at PepsiCo.

“So it’s capable of charging at a megawatt to DC. And it’s [got] next generation immersive cooling so it’s liquid cooled. So you don’t need like a gigantic elephant trunk of a cable, you can actually have a small cable, and that cable delivers a megawatt,” Musk said.