The Tesla Semi is built adjacent to Tesla’s battery Nevada battery factory and that’s a good thing, because it needs a lot of them.
Tesla hasn’t formally announced the size of the battery pack used for its new electric tractors, which have advertised ranges of 325 miles and 500 miles per charge, but a new filing with the California Air Resources Board has spilled the cells count.
EVChargingStations.com reports that documentation filed with the agency lists the battery capacities at 548 kWh and 822 kWh. To put those figures in some perspective, the Tesla Cybertruck’s battery is 123 kWh. Those sizes almost perfectly match Tesla’s estimated 1.7 kWh per mile efficiency rating for the trucks puling a full load.
Both the Semi and Cybertruck use Tesla’s latest large format 4680 cells. Based on the Cybertruck battery’s 1,590-pound weight, the Semi’s weigh roughly 7,000 pounds and 10,500 pounds, while an entire Cybertruck is less than 7,000 pounds.
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Electric tractor-trailers have a maximum allowable combined weight of 82,000 pounds, which is a literal ton more than internal combustion engine trucks and meant to offset some of the battery weight, while allowing them to still carry a commercially viable load. That doesn’t quite make up the weight disadvantage between the two types of powertrain, but throw a full tank of diesel into the mix, which weighs about 1,000 pounds, and it gets closer.
Tesla is in the process of ramping up Semi production and retail deliveries. Final pricing hasn’t been publicly announced, but it reportedly starts at $260,000 for the Standard Range model and $290,000 for the Long Range model, which also features a sleeper cab body. The Semis are equipped with fast-charging capability that can fill their batteries to 60% in 30 minutes when using Tesla’s specialized Megacharger stations.
