- Top Gear’s Jack Scarlett went from doubting the Tesla Semi to calling it a potential game changer.
- Tesla’s focus on efficiency extends from the Semi’s powertrain to how it’s built and repaired.
- Rivals already haul freight on electricity. Tesla now has to prove its truck makes better business sense.
Tesla took so long to get the Semi ready for production that it needed to give the truck a facelift along the way. Top Gear’s Jack Scarlett arrived in Nevada wondering whether the world had moved on, but after getting a ride in a Semi, he now thinks it may be Tesla’s most significant new vehicle since the Model S or Model 3.
His skepticism is reasonable. While Tesla kept pushing back the Semi's launch date, other manufacturers beat it to market. In Europe, Volvo began series production of its heavy-duty FH Electric range in September 2022. In the U.S., the Freightliner eCascadia entered production that same year and had already covered more than six million miles across over 50 customer fleets by May 2024.
Mercedes-Benz joined the long-haul fight with customer deliveries of the eActros 600 in December 2024 (I saw one at work while on an EV tour of Europe last year). By April 2025, Volvo had sold 5,000 electric trucks worldwide while Tesla was still working toward mass production. Volvo’s total includes different truck types, not just Semi rivals, but it still shows how late Tesla is to the heavy-duty EV market.
An impressive and unique machine, the Semi may have been worth the wait. After years of pilot manufacturing, it's nearing volume production. Scarlett rode shotgun with Semi program chief Dan Priestley, toured the factory, and discovered that some of this truck’s cleverest features have nothing to do with going fast or far.
The central argument is efficiency. Batteries are heavy, and every unnecessary pound eats into a truck’s earning potential. Tesla designed the Semi’s battery structure and chassis to support each other, reducing redundant structural material. It says designing the Semi as an EV from the outset saves weight, because its battery and chassis share structural duties instead of duplicating them.
Its three-motor setup also disconnects the two-motor axle during cruising, leaving one efficiency-focused motor to handle constant-speed cruising, even when loaded up.
The Semi packs 548 kilowatt-hours in Standard Range form and 822 kWh in the Long Range. Tesla quotes U.S. ranges of 325 and 500 miles, with electricity consumption around 1.7 kWh per mile. It also notes that roughly 60% of range can be replenished in 30 minutes when hooked up to a Megacharger.
As with passenger cars, the idea is to replenish range while the driver is already taking a break, not turn charging into a separate trip with extra downtime, and Tesla thinks the Semi’s charging speed makes that possible.
That philosophy extends to the Nevada factory that builds it, designed to churn out up to 50,000 trucks annually. Body panels are powder-coated, Top Gear learned, eliminating the need for a conventional paint shop. Workers install cabin components through the open rear before closing it up. The nose comes in three sections, so if it gets damaged, you don’t have to replace the whole thing.
But what's it like on the road? Riding shotgun, Scarlett says he briefly forgets there’s a fully loaded trailer behind them, like Jay Leno did when he tried the truck earlier this year. Overall, the video is a fascinating look into the work Tesla did to get this truck to market in its current form—even if it's years late. As Tesla opens up deliveries and offers the truck in new markets like Europe, we'll start to see if the trucking world bites.
