Tesla Finally Has Its First Semi-Truck and It’s Already a Hit With Truckers
Surprisingly, Tesla is winning over a hard-to-please and influential group—truckers. Truckers who drove it in pilot tests say they loved features including a centered driving position, faster charging and longer range for about $100,000 less than other battery-electric trucks.
A prolonged freight downturn, rising labor costs and trade uncertainty caused by tariffs have prompted truckers to delay buying new vehicles. That made them less likely to invest in battery-electric trucks that cost three times more than diesel rigs, take hours to charge and can only travel about 200 miles.
That said, a California program that gives trucking companies grants to buy zero-emissions vehicles sold out quickly when it reopened last year, said Niki Okuk, director of trucks and off-road at Calstart, the nonprofit that administers the program. She credits interest in buying the new Tesla Semi.
Over the past six months, trucking companies in California secured grants totaling $195 million for 1,002 Semis, according to Calstart.