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New Tesla Video Shows Tesla Semi Electric Truck Charging at 1.2 MW (electrek.co) 178

Posted by EditorDavid from the charging-ahead dept.
An anonymous reader shared this report from Electrek: Tesla has released a new video showing a Tesla Semi truck charging at a massive 1.2 megawatts (MW), finally giving us a clear look at the charging speeds that will enable long-haul electric trucking...
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Tesla claimed the Semi would be able to charge 70% of its range in 30 minutes. For a truck with a 500-mile range and an estimated battery pack of around 800-900 kWh, that requires an incredibly high power output, well beyond the 250 kW or even 350 kW we see on passenger EVs in North America. Today, the official Tesla Semi account on X released a video showing exactly that. In the video, Tesla engineers are seen monitoring a charging session where the power output climbs to a peak of 1.2 MW (1,206 kW).

This is consistent with the capabilities Tesla announced for its new V4 Cabinet architecture earlier this year. The V4 cabinets are designed to support 400V-1000V vehicle architectures and can deliver up to 500 kW for cars (like the Cybertruck) and up to 1.2 MW for the Semi. There is some information missing from the video. For example, we don't see the state-of-charge of the truck, so we don't at what battery percentage Tesla Semi can achieve and maintain this charge rate. Peak speed is one thing, but sustaining that power without overheating the pack or the cable is the real challenge. The liquid-cooled charging cable and the immersion-cooled connector (part of the Megawatt Charging System or a high-power proprietary Tesla solution, though Tesla has been leaning toward MCS compatibility) seem to be doing their job....

This comes just as Tesla is gearing up for volume production of the Semi at its new factory expansion near Gigafactory Nevada. The automaker is targeting a start of production in the first half of 2026 and a ramp up to volume production in the second half.
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New Tesla Video Shows Tesla Semi Electric Truck Charging at 1.2 MW More

New Tesla Video Shows Tesla Semi Electric Truck Charging at 1.2 MW

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  • If 1.2 is the peak, I speculate (disclaimer, I don't know any shit about it) they would probably limit it to 1 MW due to safety factor and things like that. Even 1 MW is very cool. Now if they finalize autonomous driving (China already has https://www.youtube.com/shorts... [youtube.com] ) and autonomous charging .. truck driving jobs will be like vacation.

    • Truck drivers will still be required (Score:4, Informative)

      by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Sunday January 04, 2026 @04:50AM (#65900641) Homepage

      "truck driving jobs will be like vacation"

      Not for a long time. Driving in a straight line down a highway and turning corners is the easy (for certain definitions of easy) part. The hard part comes when it gets to the yard and the driver needs to chat to the foreman about which docking ramp to park it at or whether to wait for N minutes or go to park over there for now or sorry we can't accept your load yet or there is a complete jumble of trucks with no obvious route though unless you ask someone.

      Good luck getting a computer to manage that and its these situations the tech bros ignore.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        This is one yard management system away from being fully autonomous. It's already done in parts of Europe and China.

        • Youll have a link for that then.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            I'll do better. Searcg fir large shipping ports in PRC and how they work. Those are almost infinitely more complex in terms of logistics than just mere truck hubs.

            And they're rapidly approaching near total automation at this point.

            Americans wouldn't know about this because you have longshoremen union that keeps your ports utterly archaic.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zocalo ( 252965 )
        So you have the truck equivalents of Marine Pilots, combined with an airport "drop and go" style parking system. The autonomous truck arrives at the lot, parks up in the designated assigned at the gate or whatever waiting bay, or queue, and when there's a loading dock ready, the "pilot" manually drives the truck the last few 100m.

        Besides, while it's certainly possible that all the loading docks might be in use, if you have a "complete jumble of trucks", then that's a fairly major yard design failure and

        • Yeah, good luck getting every small company that has deliveries by truck coughing up for some automated system. Isnt going to happen, and if a driver needs to be paid to be on hand manouver the vehicle around the yard then he might as well drive it all the way.

          • There are a ton of ways to cheaply solve this last mile problem -- such as trucks stopping in a designated spot (parking lot? gas station?) where a contracted human gets on it to babysit the last mile and argue with the foreman. They may not even need a CDL .. just some training on using the truck's touchscreen interface.

            Will there be certain locations that are edge cases? Probably. The semi has room for a person, so those can be handled .. until the edge case scenarios have an automated truck handling and

      • It's a lot easier to imagine at a distribution center for Amazon/UPS/Walmart though, isn't it? A lot like a lights-out warehouse.
      • And for the driving yard there are already fully automated drivingsystems in use. Complete docks are fully automated. It's actually the open road which still is the harder part, due to human drivers...

      • then you just need someone at the yard to use a remote control to dock the truck

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by spitzak ( 4019 )

        If for some reason the computer can't do this, the foreman or a helper can get in the truck and drive it to the correct location manually. Or (more likely imho) some kid in Korea will drive it remotely. In any case, the long-distance trucker is out of a job.

    • It amazes me because we haven't bothered to go past L1 for our Mini EV, just don't need to. That's 1.1 kW. So this is 1,000 times faster! Not that you would expect them to be close, but 1000 is the average capacity of a Walmart Supercenter parking lot, totally full. Going into 1 semi tractor.
      • The Tesla semi is supposed to have a 900kWh battery, so even at the full 1.2MW delivery, it will still take 45 minutes to fully charge its battery. Assuming that, to preserve battery life, it's charged only to 80%, and recharged when between 10% and 20%, that's a half hour at the charging station. A large truck stop on an interstate can have 15 to 20 fuel pumps, with a fillup taking 10-15 minutes; that makes a recharge 2x - 3x the time to fill up with diesel (unless the jerk in front of you has gone in to t

    • The peak charge is nice, but what matters more is the whole charging curve -- which they don't show you. If it only holds 1.2MW for a few minutes then slacks down to 800KW until 80% then dives further, it's not as impressive.

      Tesla won't be "finalizing" autonomous driving any time soon, at least if we use their FSD for cars as a guide. FSD works well in many cases and then does a critical disengagement when you need it most. (Note that they still have to have a safety driver in their faux-autonomous ride sha

  • Electric semis are not viable (Score:5, Interesting)

    by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Sunday January 04, 2026 @02:21AM (#65900529)

    The only way it would have made economic sense to have electric semis is with the previous administration investing hundreds of billions of dollars in developing the infrastructure needed to keep these trucks charged and on the road and with tax incentives for buyers.

    Trump has completely destroyed all renewable incentives and development for the next 3 years. Nobody is going to sell a single electric semi in that time. No new massive charging stations built. No fleets converting to electric.

    Even when we were on track for all the investment, there still were no buyers for electric semis. It just doesn't make economic sense. Forget about the cost of the truck, which is half of the problem. The other half is all of the problems and time delays and costs and complications and lack of resources and infrastructure.

    Tesla semis weren't even good electric semis. Other semi manufacturers have better trucks built on established platforms with fewer problems.

    I don't understand why they're still pretending Tesla is going to sell these to anybody. You will see "pilot programs" and "evaluations", but it's just using budget allocated to Green ventures to make corporations seem more environmentally friendly. They aren't serious.

    • Re:Electric semis are not viable (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Sunday January 04, 2026 @03:29AM (#65900573)

      Well, truckers who have driven EV trucks have preferred them - they are much easier on the body than diesel engines. The smoothness and quietness of EVs mean their backs and joints don't hurt as much after a long day of driving.

      Their instant torque also make them much nicer to drive in city traffic.

      Sure the incentives might no longer exist, but the quality of the experience is such that it's likely to be something in demand.

      What's likely to happen is hybrid trucks with fully electric drivetrains - so they get the advantages of EV driving, but currently compatible with infrastructure today. The diesel generator can be optimized to run smoother and quieter (like modern generators used for backup power) so they won't affect the ride quality.

      • I'm very interested in this. Is there a website somewhere with a forum where truckers discuss this?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by shilly ( 142940 )

          There’s interviews with Chinese semi drivers online, and there’s a guy called the Electric Trucker who talks about his experiences in Europe

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            Yes. In fact the company he works for, Nano Janssen runs a fleet of electric semis across Europe. He's driven across all of Europe, including a 5000 km trip to Central Turkey. Fascinating stuff. Shows that with a little bit of infrastructure, ev trucking is viable. And if you coordinate charging with mandatory breaks, it works out well even at just 300 kw charging.

            Some people on slashdot think that Europe is smaller than the United States for driving distances. It's not. Europe is a vast place. The differen

      • I can imagine that going uphill and downhill is also much easier in an electric truck.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shilly ( 142940 )

      “problems and time delays and costs and complications and lack of resources and infrastructure.”

      Can you spell this out? What problems? When you say time delays, are you talking about on the road? Or in the infra buildout?

    • Re: Electric semis are not viable (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 ) on Sunday January 04, 2026 @08:46AM (#65900831)
      I was at a conference last year and met some folks from tesla that were part of this project. They did the expected cost should be on par with a diesel truck.

      As a rule of thumb, 500 miles is about the max a driver can move in a day before running out of hours, so if they can build up a network on the interstates to support, it could work. In addition to long haul deliveries, local deliveries (LTL) are daily loops going a couple hundred miles max per day and ending back at the point of origin. That would be a great use case for these.
    • Cargo capacity is. The batteries eat up too much cargo capacity. We are nowhere near matching the energy density of gasoline yet.

      EVs can make sense for consumer vehicles because when you charge at home heavily subsidized electricity makes it super cheap to do so. Combine that with a bunch of additional government subsidies and it becomes economically viable.

      All the government subsidies in the world don't fix the cargo capacity problems. Those cargo capacity problems completely screw up the ultra-tig
    • Why is it that you assume that government subsidies are the only way to build out the infrastructure required for electric vehicles? Or that there is zero benefit to an electric vehicle without the government subsidizing the cost of an electric car? Tesla built out an international charging system. Yes their cars here were subsidized but at a tiny fraction of the actual cost (model S price was rather high and the subsidy rather low, basically free money for rich people). There is no need for governments to

    • Perhaps they aren't ready for "long haul" routes yet, but ~40% of trucking is regional and last mile. EV semi-trucks are very capable of doing that. They would only need chargers at their destinations and use them either overnight, or during loading & unloading. Let's change those trucks over first and we can worry about long-haul later.

  • just build in an grappling hook to clip on to the power lines.

  • Tesla catching up (Score:3)

    by nniillss ( 577580 ) on Sunday January 04, 2026 @03:50AM (#65900581)

    Truck charging with 1.2 MW is not exactly new: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • That is the new standard for the charging system, clearly visible in the video, the Megawatt Charging System or MCS. The connector has a maximum rate of 3.75 MW. Work on it has been going on for several years and started in 2018. The first public MCS station opened in Sweden in 2025, and there are more now.

      But although it is a significant development, MCS will probably not replace the old CCS standard simply because not everyone needs it, and CCS is more cost-effective. So we will likely see a choice bet

      • So we will likely see a choice between the two at charging stations.

        You'll only find these in specific locations where trucks typically stop to refuel. Most people won't see a pump with an MCS option, just like most people don't see a pump with a high-flow diesel dispenser (which are everywhere at highway truckstops).

        • But MCS is a significant technology that offers fast charging with support for heavy trucks, and the market is growing strongly.

        • Idk about that. I think people would really appreciate ultra fast EV charging options that let them get in and out in 5 minutes.

  • Electric grid (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Archfeld ( 6757 ) <treboreel@live.com> on Sunday January 04, 2026 @04:29AM (#65900623) Journal

    That kind of requirement is going to kill an already over burdened grid in many places.

    • *grabs popcorn and a cooler of beer for the show*
      Of course, there will probably be a bunch of comments about using renewables for powering the charging stations (solar and wind)... I wanna see how big the field of solar panels is to power one of these chargers.
      And, yeah... the heavier the load (or, if you prefer, the total weight), the harder the electric motor has to work, the more amps it draws. So, are they just going to have a football stadium-sized charging station every 200 miles along every highway?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jsonn ( 792303 )
        Modern solar panels have a peak production of around 200W per square meter. Let's ball park the load factor at 10% to keep it simple and also assume they are installed flat on the ground. That would give 500m by 100m per charger with a buffer battery to work 24/7. At the same time, a modern wind turbine at 6MW would be able to power about 1.5 such charger on its own at the same conditions. Doable.But it's not actually a very useful metric as that you really care about is fleet consumption. Volvo gives 1.1kW

        • I'm a pessimist... sure, it might work, but I'm looking at the downsides to everything.

          What parking heaters? I'm in the US here.
          1/4 of average grid load for what? The current (as of January) amount of electric semis?
          And, for the charger field of panels... that's for one charger... I suspect that there's gonna be more than one truck needing a charge at a time. So, say 5 football fields x 1 football field = one charger... that's a lot of land for one, let's say one charging park has 15 chargers... where ar

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jsonn ( 792303 )
            Parking heaters are a dedicated small burner to heat the cabine, but also possibly pre-warm the engine. They can be found both in regular cars (remote controlled) and trucks when sitting around without driving is popular for that vehicle. Like a fire truck or an ambulance. They are much more fuel efficient than keeping the whole engine block heated and also reduce wear.

            If all current trucks are replaced by EV trucks, it would increases the demand on the grid by about 25%, ballpark number. Or to look at it

  • FFS Tell Us Drain Time With Full Cargo Weight (Score:4, Interesting)

    by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Sunday January 04, 2026 @05:58AM (#65900721) Journal
    It doesn't matter how fast it charges if it can't drive as far as a diesel with 40,000 pounds of cargo. The heavier the weight, the more toque required, which is the Achilles Heel of electric motors and batteries. They aren't telling us anything if they don't show how far it drive pulling a 40,000 pound cargo on a long trailer. 80,000 pounds altogether. Diesel tractor trailers can drive up to 2000 miles on a full fuel load, depending on tank size. I seriously doubt a Tesla semi can drive even 200 to 300 miles with a full cargo load of 40,000 pounds.

    • I seriously doubt a Tesla semi can drive even 200 to 300 miles with a full cargo load of 40,000 pounds.

      I doubt this too because they have already shown in tests that the Tesla semi drives 390 miles with a full cargo load. The videos are there, from multiple truck manufacturers. Tesla currently beat out Volvo who only achieved 375 miles on the FH Electric. DAF XF achieved only 310 miles.

      Is this the whole EV thing over and over again? People having "doubts" about technology that is in use and has demonstrations already in place?

    • Re:FFS Tell Us Drain Time With Full Cargo Weight (Score:5, Informative)

      by Quantum gravity ( 2576857 ) on Sunday January 04, 2026 @09:10AM (#65900859)
      The upcoming new Volvo MCS (Megawatt Charging System) truck is said to have a range of 600 km, a charging time of 40 minutes and a possible weight of 48 tons, which is close to a diesel. Volvo is probably the leading manufacturer of electric trucks, but there are plenty of them.

      And after 4.5 hours of driving, the driver must rest for 45 minutes (by law), and during that time charging can take place, so 600 km is more than enough. Note that not everyone needs MCS and will be completely happy with the old CCS standard. Finding the right truck for the right usage should be the whole point, not just getting a wide range.

      I have seen projections that estimate that the electric truck market will grow from $39.3 billion in 2025 to $193.4 billion in 2033.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      In Europe there are quite a few electric semis on the road, with gvw up to 48 tonnes. Real world range of about 500 km. So Tesla s numbers are realistic. In Europe the average seems to be about 1.2 km per kwh fully loaded. And as long as you come back down there other side with regenerative braking, you can get that same efficiency going up mountains.

      It's nice that a big diesel can hold fuel for 2000 miles but no driver is going to or be allowed to drive that without stopping for breaks. In Europe cha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      Driving 2000 miles on a single fuel load is only useful on a team drive (2 drivers taking turns driving/resting). Most trucks move roughly 500 miles in a day due to mandatory rest periods.

      With proper charging infrastructure, which Tesla has shown they are willing to help build, these could be viable for long hauls with negligible impacts to recharging/refueling times if paired with rest facilities. What I envision is a rest stop with charging stations set up next to each parking spot that can charge bac
    • Google Pepsi's Tesla real world range. Pepsi says the trucks have exceeded range expectations. Pepsi has also said those trucks have lower maintenance cost and are preferred by drivers.

      On the other hand, do you have any evidence for your serious doubts? Or is it all based on thought experiments in your own head?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jsonn ( 792303 )
      At least in Europe, it doesn't matter how far the Diesel truck can drive. The driver is allowed to drive for 270min before taking a 45 min break. Guess what EV trucks in Europe are optimized to achieve? Right, about 400km range and a charge time of under 45min. Torque has never been a problem for EV engines, I have no idea what you are smoking.

  • How long before the high voltages needed to sustain that power flow end up killing someone?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )

      How long before the high voltages needed to sustain that power flow end up killing someone?

      Can you explain the mechanisms by which this would happen? Just having 1000 V in the vicinity of a person doesn't mean a thing - you need to somehow have a circuit through a person to kill them. Something like: someone touches a bare conductor with one hand while touching exposed metal on the chassis with the other. (I wouldn't trust my life to it, but automotive paint is generally not conductive.) So: how would you access an energized conductor? All the conductors are heavily insulated. Given the la

  • Power grids are interesting in that at any given moment the power being consumed needs to match the power being generated; in theory every time you or someone else turns on or off a light, a generator somewhere needs to spin a little faster or slower. In the time lag between the light turning on and the corresponding generator speeding up, the frequency of the grid slows a bit until the corresponding generator speeds up. Realistically no single light (or small load) being turned on or off has impact because

    • I am not a grid engineer :) but the easy answer to your question is to install a Tesla Megapack (or equivalent) and charge from it. Then refill the Megapack from solar panels on top of the warehouse, or from the grid but at times of lower prices or just trickle it in. The destination will know how many trucks are coming in at what times and so that can be planned.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jsonn ( 792303 )
      Depends somewhat on which grid you are talking about as they have vastly different reserves. Unless you are in a special spot, the European Grid can normally handle momentary load changes in the GW range without issues. Anything with variable load in the MW range will also be integrated into the grid's load management system. That is, if there is a shortage, they will reduce the load nearly instantly. Expect local buffer batteries to be a thing as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )
      I am not a grid engineer. However, ...

      Unless you are genuinely designing for it, a 1-MW load can't easily get turned on and off instantaneously. If nothing else, the inductance of the wires will limit how quickly you can ramp the current up/down. EV charge equipment doesn't instantly start charging at its maximum rate - a modest ramp is employed. There are relatively small facilities, called "frequency stabilization services", whose job is to rapidly (almost instantly) respond to modest changes in su

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jsonn ( 792303 )
        Just to put it into perspective. Five years ago, almost to the day, there was a partial blackout in South East Europe. Root issue was a short in a 400kV transmission line coupled with secondary issues, ultimately resulting in a net split and a loss of 5.8GW production capacity for the European Grid. That was compensated, but resulted in a frequency drop of 0.25 Hz. That was an unscheduled emergency. Regular variance over the day in France and Germany alone can be 20GW together between the midday peek and th

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