- Tesla announced improvements to the Semi during its annual shareholder meetingeight years after the electric truck was first revealed.
- The Semi now wears a light bar on its front end reminiscent of the Cybertruck and Model Yand Tesla promises better efficiency and payload ratings.
- Elon Musk says volume production of the Semi will finally begin next yearwith the Nevada factory where it will be built expected to open in early 2026.
The Tesla Roadster—which Elon Musk says will finally be revealed in production form on April 12026—isn't the only model from the American EV maker that we've been waiting for since 2017. Eight years agoTesla also showed off the Semian electric big rig that promised to shake up the world of commercial hauling. But only a small number of Semis have been built in the years sinceand now Tesla is refreshing the Semi before production even officially gets underway.
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Tesla showed the updated Semi during the company's shareholder meeting last weekwith the new design borrowing the look seen on the Cybertruck that later spread to the Model Y SUV. While Tesla only published a single photo of the freshened Semiwe can spot a new full-width light bar in place of the vertically oriented headlights from the original design. The bumper is also reworkedwith new aero channels cut into the bodywork just ahead of the front wheels. There also appears to be new cameras mounted just ahead of the doorssupplementing the side-view mirrors.
Tesla didn't just give the Semi a new facebut it also announced a series of improvements under the skin that should make the truck more useful for fleets if production ever does get going. Tesla claims the truck is more efficient than beforewhile also having an increased payload. Range is listed at 500 milesachieving 1.7 kWh per mile. Some quick math shows the Semi packs a roughly 850-kWh battery.
The Semi also packs 1072 horsepoweralong with the ability to charge at up to 1.2 megawattsor 1200 kW. That charging figure is unchanged from before and allows the Semi to gain 70 percent of its range in 30 minutes at a charger. Tesla also says the truck is now "designed for autonomy," but the company didn't provide further details.
In typical Elon Musk fashionhe claims that volume production of the Semi will start next year. We won't hold out hopehoweversince at the reveal in 2017he said that production would begin in 2019and we've been waiting ever since. The Semi is supposed to be assembled in a new factory in Nevadawhich was originally supposed to open in late 2025but that completion date has now been pushed to early next year.
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Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years oldand he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autosaiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargoand is an avid motorsports fan.
