The Tesla Semi is heading to the North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s (NACFE) three-week-long assessment for electric vehicle fleets. While there will be twenty-one commercial EVs at the event, the Semi seems to be the highlight of the entire event.
The NACFE’s event is called the Run on Less – Electric DEPOT, and it will track the performance and activity of the 21 electric trucks, including an in-depth understanding of the benefits and challenges of battery electric trucks. The event will also be looking at things like total electric energy and fuel for all trucks on each day, and what that will mean in total energy usage once all Class 8 trucks are converted to EVs.
Credit: NACFE
The list of participating trucks includes:
- At Frito-Lay’s Queens, New York depot, two Ford E-Transit vans will be tracked operating in urban delivery.
- At OK Produce in Fresno, California, a Freightliner eCascadia and an Orange EV will be tracked in local fruit and vegetable deliveries and terminal tractor applications, respectively.
- At Penske’s Ontario, California location, a GM BrightDrop, a Navistar eMV and a Freightliner eCascadia, a light-, medium- and heavy-duty truck, will be followed.
- At PepsiCo’s Sacramento, California depot, two Tesla Semis will be tracked in heavy-load long-haul transport operations.
- At Performance Team’s Commerce, California location, two electric Volvo VNRs will be tracked conducting short-haul routes.
- At Purolator’s Richmond, British Columbia hub, a Class 6 Motiv step van and a Ford E-Transit will be tracked in business and residential package delivery.
- At Schneider’s South El Monte, California location, two Freightliner eCascadias operating in slip-seated drayage will be tracked.
- At UPS in Compton, California, a Freightliner Custom Chassis MT50e last mile step van and a Freightliner eCascadia in a middle mile duty cycle will both be tracked.
- At US Foods in La Mirada, California, two Freightliner eCascadias will be tracked in food delivery applications.
- At WattEV’s Long Beach, California location, a BYD 8TT tractor and a Nikola Tre BEV tractor operating at the Port of Long Beach will be tracked.
The NACFE’s Executive Director, Mike Roeth, said:
“As trucking works on decarbonizing, fleets are investing in more electric vehicles at their depots which brings with it many benefits but also some challenges, especially around infrastructure and charging. Yet leading fleets are tackling those challenges and are giving us access to their operations so we can share what they are learning with the rest of the industry.”
The event was initially reported by Automotive News.
The Tesla Semi Takes Center Stage
Of all twenty-one EVs that will be assessed, the Tesla Semi seems to be the vehicle that is at the forefront of the event.
The NACFE’s press release explicitly mentions the Semi, which there will be two units of in the assessment.
The Semi was highlighted in a recent Run on Less video that showed the advantages of transitioning to an electric fleet at Pepsi’s Sacramento, California plant.
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Pepsi details how its Tesla Semi fleet is helping it reach sustainability goals
Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla Energy has introduced the Powerwall Lease in conjunction with Tesla Electric, making the service available in Texas. This new option delivers whole-home backup power using two Powerwall units for a net monthly cost of $35 after credits, accompanied by a low fixed electricity rate.
Under the lease terms, customers pay a one-time order fee of $100. The base lease payment for the two Powerwalls is approximately $122 per month during the first year, subject to a 3 percent annual escalator thereafter. Enrollment in a qualifying Tesla Electric Backup plan or Virtual Power Plant plan provides an $87 monthly credit.
Powerwall Lease is now available with Tesla Electric in Texas
Whole-home backup for $35/month, with a low fixed electricity rate
– Two Powerwalls, $0 installation
– Storm Watch outage protection
– One app to manage it all pic.twitter.com/oTzqc6K3aF— Tesla Energy (@teslaenergy) August 13, 2026
This credit lowers the effective cost to roughly $35 per month plus applicable tax.
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Installation of the standard system carries no additional charge. The package features Storm Watch for outage protection and allows complete management through a single Tesla application. The system supplies continuous whole-home backup capability.
The Powerwall system enables households to maintain electricity during severe storms that disrupt the utility grid. When outages occur, the batteries automatically provide seamless backup power to the home.
Tesla announces 100k Powerwalls are participating in Virtual Power Plants
Tesla Storm Watch monitors weather forecasts and ensures the units are fully charged ahead of anticipated severe weather events so that power remains available throughout the disruption, keeping lights, refrigeration, and other essential systems operating without interruption.
Availability is restricted to select Texas locations where retail electric choice exists. Participants must lease exactly two Powerwall units and maintain continuous enrollment with Tesla Electric. Solar panels cannot be included under this particular lease arrangement.
The monthly credit activates automatically once the system is installed, receives permission to operate, and enrollment is confirmed. To retain the credit, customers are required to stay enrolled in Tesla Electric and fulfill all program conditions.
Nonstandard installations that involve electrical upgrades or special permitting may lead to extra expenses and might impact eligibility for the credit, so be sure to check with either your installer or Tesla to ensure you will still qualify.
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Elon Musk continues to tease the unveiling event for the Tesla Roadster, a continuing trend that has grown into a bigger game of “When” for fans who have been waiting years for the car to finally enter production.
A video shared on X of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Musk appeared on last year, teasing the Roadster unveiling, was shared once again on the social media platform. The poster said the Roadster event will be “unforgettable.”
Musk agreed:
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2026
The timing is interesting because just yesterday, Musk said that we will be getting flying cars, and for years, Tesla has hinted that it could develop a SpaceX cold gas thruster package that would help the car float or fly for a short period of time.
It would be reasonable to assume Tesla’s major delays with this unveiling event are likely caused by the company’s need to break the rules and push the envelope on nearly everything. Last July, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, said:
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“Roadster is definitely in development. We did talk about it last Sunday night. We are gearing up for a super cool demo. It’s going to be mind blowing. We showed Elon some cool demos last week of the tech we’ve been working on and he got a little excited.”
The latest updates that Tesla has given us are that the Roadster is in design development, and it did have several potential dates for an unveiling event this year, including April. It was then pushed to August.
However, there are no clues as to when Tesla will be ready, and fans are certainly getting frustrated with the delays.
For what it is worth, Franz von Holzhausen told Jay Leno this week that the event would be “very soon.”
We sure hope.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s driverless Cybercab just passed a big test with State Governor
Florida’s governor rode Tesla’s Cybercab at a closed test track and called the experience impressive.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rode in a Tesla Cybercab on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, posting on X that the vehicle “successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.” He called the ride “impressive.”
The stop was part of a broader event Monday at SunTrax, a 775 acre state owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing next to a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the car in plain terms: “You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial.”
We took a ride on a robotaxi on the Suntrax course and it successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.
Impressive! https://t.co/FVAkzFLz3r
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 11, 2026
DeSantis paired the praise with a caveat that has followed autonomous vehicles since the category existed. “You don’t want to be in an autonomous vehicle and it drives you into a ditch. That would not be good,” he said, framing safety validation as the gate before wider deployment.
SunTrax, the 2.25 mile oval which the state calls the only high speed autonomous vehicle test track in the Southeast, can simulate rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds, letting companies push a car past what an early public rollout would risk. Tesla, Waymo and Beep all use the facility, and Florida’s regulatory approach, among the most permissive for autonomous vehicles in the country, doesn’t require a human operator inside a fully autonomous car.
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Tesla has reason to want the blessing of Florida and states beyond, as the Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law. Public road testing so far has kept a safety monitor in the passenger seat, and Florida is where Tesla has been expanding its existing Model Y based Robotaxi service instead, adding Miami in July and then Orlando and Tampa two weeks later. A closed track endorsement from a sitting governor doesn’t change any of that, but it does put Tesla’s newest hardware in front of a state that has already shown it will move fast on rules.
Tesla launches Powerwall Lease for affordable home backup
Elon Musk teases Tesla Roadster unveiling once again
