A Tesla Semi has already traveled 250,000 miles: here’s what we learned about the electric truck
We learned a lot about Tesla Semi thanks to a new presentation from the head of the electric truck program at Tesla, including the fact that Tesla ran one of the trucks 250,000 miles (400,000 km) already.
Tesla Semi has already been “in production” for almost 2 years, but the production has been very limited and one could even argue that it was a “pilot” run until Tesla brings the vehicle to volume production at its new facility under construction in Nevada.
The automaker is believed to have built a fleet of about 100 Tesla Semi trucks and it is mostly using them internally and with its customer-partner PepsiCo.
Now, Dan Priestley, the head of the Tesla Semi program, has given a presentation at the IAA conference in Germany today to give an update on how the program is going.
A video of the presentation hasn’t surfaced yet, but people attending the event have released images of the slides and some of the highlights of the statistics revealed by Priestley:
For example, we learn that the Tesla Semi fleet has already traveled 7.5 million miles and that a single truck has traveled 250,000 miles (400,000 km) over the last 1.5 years.
Thanks to the resurgence of consumer electric vehicles, we already know that electric powertrains could deliver better performance in commercial trucks, but many still doubt that the batteries will have the energy capacity and longevity to make commercial electric trucking viable.
This data should help convince more people.
With the capacity to travel 1,700 km (1,000 miles) in a single day with virtually the same capacity of a diesel truck, Tesla is making the argument that a Tesla Semi can replace a diesel class 8 truck one-for-one.
Priestley also claimed that Tesla is seeing 95% uptime with the trucks, which is important as downtime means losing money for trucking companies.
The arguably most important information to come out of the presentation is that the current Tesla Semi fleet is proving an efficiency of 100 kWh to travel 100 km (62 miles):
At 1.6 kWh per mile, this is a little better than the 1.7 kWh per mile that Tesla previously predicted.
The engineer said that Tesla plans to deliver the electric trucks to more customers this year, but volume production is going to come with the new factory next year.
The goal is to reach an annualized production capacity of 50,000 trucks in 2026.
Electrek’s Take
This is awesome. Again, Tesla Semi is the program I am most excited about at Tesla right now. Based on its history of delivering efficient electric vehicles in volume profitably, I think Tesla is the one to make commercial electric trucks happen at scale.
There are already many competitors out there, but none are currently talking about 50,000 units per year, which would make a real impact on the industry, by 2026.
If these numbers are accurate, I think it could actually work,
Now, the bigger problem to solve is going to be the infrastructure as we are going to adapt truck stops to support megawatt charging at scale. It’s not an easy problem, but it is solvable and worth doing to decarbonize commercial transportation.
If we couple that charging to cheap renewable energy, we have a winning solution.
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Tesla average transaction prices (ATPs) in March are estimated at $54,582, higher year-over-year by 3.5% and higher than in February, according to the latest monthly new-vehicle ATP report from Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book.
Average transaction prices for the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y were higher month-over-month and year-over-year in March. Tesla’s sales in Q1 continued their long-term decline after peaking in Q1 2023. Estimates from Kelley Blue Book suggest Tesla’s sales in Q1 2025 were lower year-over-year by more than 8%. Its deliveries were also worse than expected.
New EV prices in March overall are initially estimated by Kelley Blue Book to be $59,205, higher year-over-year by 7.0%. New EV prices increased from the revised higher February ATP of $57,015.
The ATP for an EV last month was nearly 25% higher than the industry average of $47,462, widening the price gap between new EVs and gas-powered cars even more.
But EVs are still seeing heftier incentives than the industry average. In March, the average EV incentive came in at 13.3% of the transaction price – down 1% from February’s revised 14.3% but still well above what gas cars are getting.
So, where are we heading? Higher prices, thanks to Trump’s tariffs. But what that will look like remains to be seen. Erin Keating, executive analyst at Cox Automotive, said, “All signs point to higher prices this summer, as existing ‘pre-tariff’ inventory is sold down to be eventually replaced with ‘tariffed’ inventory. How high prices rise for consumers is still very much to be determined, as each automaker will handle the price puzzle differently.”
Read more: EV incentives surged to 14.8% of ATP in Feb – highest in 5+ years
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BYD just launched the first EVs based on its new Super e-platform with ultra-fast charging. The new Han L sedan and Tang L SUV can gain nearly 250 miles range in 5 minutes, and prices start at just $30,000.
Meet BYD’s new EVs with ultra-fast charging
During a launch event on April 9, BYD introduced the new EV models, claiming its engineers have “achieved the master realm of Chinese technology.”
The Han L and Tang L are the first EVs based on BYD’s 1000V Super e-platform. After unveiling the ultra-fast EV charging platform last month, BYD’s CEO, Wang Chuanfu, said to ease charging anxiety, “The ultimate solution is to make charging as quick as refueling a gasoline car.”
That solution is now here. BYD’s new Han L is available in three trims, starting at just 219,800 yuan ($30,000), lower than the pre-sale price of 270,000 yuan ($36,800).
BYD’s new electric sedan is 5,050 mm long, 1,960 mm wide, and 1,505 mm tall, or about the size of a Tesla Model S (5,021 mm long, 1,987 mm wide, and 1,431 mm tall).
All variants are powered by an 83.2 kWh BYD Blade battery, providing up to 435 miles (701 km) of CLTC driving range. Based on BYD’s 1,000V architecture, the Han L comes with two charge guns with an up to 10C charge rate.
Nearly 250 miles in just 5 minutes?
With ultra-fast charging, the electric sedan can gain 400 km (248 miles) in just five minutes. In six minutes, it can recharge from 10% to 70%, and in just 20 minutes, it can fully recharge (0% to 100%) the battery.
Like all its new EV models, the Han L is equipped with BYD’s God’s Eye smart driving assist system. It features the mid-tier “B” version and DiPilot 300.
BYD’s new electric SUV, the Tang L, is also offered in three trims. It starts at 239,800 yuan ($32,700), also below the pre-sale price of 280,000 yuan ($38,200).
The Tang L is also based on BYD’s 1,000V architecture and ultra-fast charging platform. Powered by a 100.5 kWh battery, it has a CLTC range of up to 435 miles (701 km) and can gain 230 miles (370 km) in 5 minutes. It will take about 30 minutes to go from 0% to 100%.
BYD’s electric SUV is 5,040 mm long, 1996 mm wide, and 1,760 mm tall, or slightly bigger than the new Tesla Model Y Juniper in China (4,797 mm long, 1,920 mm wide, and 1,624 mm tall).
Like the Han L EV, the electric SUV has BYD’s God’s Eye B ADAS system with DiPilot 300. Both the Han L and Tang are available as PHEVs, starting at 209,800 yuan ($28,500) and 229,800 yuan ($31,300).
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The fintech sector is rallying Wednesday following the Trump administration’s announcement of a 90-day pause on planned tariffs.
Affirm was up 20%, Toast and Block rose 13% and PayPal increased 10%.
The 90-day pause doesn’t eliminate the threat of tariffs — it just delays it. Investors are still pricing in risk, including inflation, discretionary pullbacks, hardware import costs and credit exposure.
Legacy payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard, both up 6%, continue to benefit from inflation and their structural ties to nominal GDP. These companies take a percentage of every transaction. That makes rising prices a tailwind.
“If prices are moving up for certain goods and you’re paying with a credit card, it’s actually good for the credit card companies,” said Dan Dolev, a fintech analyst at Mizuho.
Their pricing structure has historically made them resilient during inflationary periods, including recessions. The situation is less rosy for the new wave of consumer lending fintechs.
Affirm, which specializes in allowing consumers to buy now and pay later, could suffer if consumers pull back spending when the pause is lifted as a result of tariffs causing prices to rise. The San Francisco-based company could see its revenue less transaction costs margins — essentially what the company pockets after paying processing fees and customer incentives — drop more than 22% in that scenario, according to a Goldman Sachs estimate on Tuesday.
The adoption of buy now, pay later may rise as consumers hit credit limits, said SIG analyst James Friedman, but he added that the model remains untested in a downturn.
Toast, Block and Fiserv, which was up 6%, develop software used by restaurants and small businesses. Those companies could face rising hardware costs and softening demand from customers if the tariffs go through.
Meanwhile, cross-border payments — one of the most profitable segments for Visa, Mastercard and PayPal — remain under pressure as global travel slows and e-commerce flows adjust to the uncertainties of Trump’s tariffs.
Even remittance players such as Remitly and Western Union, both up 8%, could face longer-term pain if immigration pipelines slow or remittance corridors tighten under regulatory scrutiny. Similar to cross-border commerce, remittances depend on a steady flow of people and transactions, both of which remain fragile.
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