Tesla Semi electric truck tests out international markets

Tesla this year finally began high-volume commercial production of the Tesla Semi at its gigafactory in Nevada, almost 10 years after first unveiling it back in 2017.

Now, just months after mass production began, Tesla is hiring for roles in Europe to help build a customer base for its biggest and arguably most impactful product.

Alex V, an automotive industry expert from Germany, shared that the company is looking to hire a Business Development Manager based in Munich.

The role will involve building and maintaining relationships with Tesla Semi customers in Europe as well as working with transport industry operators to offer a comprehensive solution, including Semi charging.

This could be a huge step for the brand as it looks to expand it’s centre driving seat Semi trucks into markets outside of North America.

Europe is expected to receive the latest version of the Tesla Semi, which has undergone multiple iterations since the first batch was delivered in the US in 2022 as part of a trial with the large food and beverage customer PepsiCo.

In recent months, some of these changes have been highlighted in the data shared by the company.

In March this year, in an interview with Jay Leno, Dan Priestley, Tesla’s Semi program lead, shared that the truck now uses a 48 V architecture and delivers a fully electric steering system. Previous versions of the Semi used a hydraulic system.

In the same drive test and interview, it was revealed that the Semi is also much cheaper to run than equivalent Diesel trucks. Data shared shows that it is 50% cheaper to run in California than diesel semi trucks.

Another data point was shared in May this year when Tesla said that it’s been collecting data around the significant reduction in downtime experienced for transport and logistics operators that have used the semi-electric truck in trials.

According to Tesla, the initial Semi fleet, which has been trialled, faced less than 5 per cent downtime, and 75% of the services on the Semi were completed within 24 hours.

On specs, the Semi’s variant comes in two variants. The first is a Standard Range variant coming with a 548 kWh battery pack and delivering over 500 km of range.

A larger Long Range variant comes in at 822 kWh and delivers up to over 800 km of range with a 37-tonne load on board.

Both variants use Tesla’s 4680 cells with NMCA chemistry, which can be charged at up to 1.2 MW with Tesla’s Megachargers, designed specifically for the Tesla Semi.

Tesla is expected to produce these at the company’s recently opened Nevada Gigafactory. It can produce up to 50,000 semi-trucks per year.

The latest job posting in Europe seems like a good step forward for the company as it plans to fill up production capacity at that factory with orders from outside of North America.

We look forward to seeing more details on Tesla Semi’s international expansion, as it could be a vehicle logistics and transport company’s lean on to save money on diesel while reducing emissions.

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Riz Akhtar

Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.