News
Tesla Semi production specs: powertrain, battery, Megacharger output, and more
The Tesla Semi has already been delivered to its first customers, but the actual production specs of the vehicle remain largely unknown or unconfirmed at best. Fortunately, a recent trip to PepsiCo’s Frito Lay facility in Modesto, Caifornia has provided some details that otherwise reveal the Tesla Semi production specs.
When Tesla held the first deliveries of the Semi, CEO Elon Musk highlighted that sustainable long-haulers are needed because in the transportation sector, semi trucks comprise about just 1% of vehicles on the road but they account for 20% of the emissions. Vehicles like the Tesla Semi are then designed to challenge this status quo.
Automotive publication MotorTrend was able to visit PepsiCo’s Modesto Frito Lay facility to check out the company’s first Tesla Semi units. As noted by the publication, the Modesto facility is a perfect fit for the Semi as the site already uses other green vehicles like BYD 8Y yard tractors, Peterbilt 220EV electric box trucks, and natural-gas-powered Volvo VNL trucks. The Tesla Semi fleet is used for out-and-back trips across the region.
The publication was able to gather some details about the Class 8 all-electric truck from its drivers and Tesla representatives who were at the location during the visit. Following are some key specs of the Tesla Semi.
Powertrain
The Tesla Semi features a modified Plaid tri-motor powertrain that’s spun backward. The Model S’ front motor drives the Semi’s rear axle and acts as the vehicle’s high-efficiency “highway drive unit.” The Model S Plaid’s dual rear motors, on the other hand, are installed on the rear axle. With this in mind, MotorTrend estimated that the Tesla Semi likely matches the Model S and Model X Plaid’s 1,020 horsepower and 1,050 pounds-feet of torque.
This estimate makes sense considering that a Tesla representative reportedly noted that the Tesla Semi makes “three times the power of an average diesel semi.” The US’ best-selling semi is the Freightliner Cascadia, whose base model features 350 horsepower. Three times the base Cascadia’s horsepower certainly aligns with the estimate that the Semi has about 1,020 horsepower. On a side note, the Tesla Semi production version does not have a frunk, unlike the vehicle’s prototype units.
Battery
Drivers of the Tesla Semi reportedly noted that the all-electric Class 8 truck is fitted with a 1,000 kWh battery pack. Tesla lists the Semi’s range as 500 miles per charge, and Elon Musk has also highlighted that the vehicle would consume only 2 kW per mile traveled.
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If these estimates prove accurate, then the Semi’s 300-mile variant would likely have a battery pack that’s around 600 kWh. That’s still a lot of batteries, so Tesla would have to ensure that its production is optimized to ensure that the Semi is profitable.
Megacharger Output
The Tesla Semi features a charging port that’s different from all the vehicles that the company has released so far. The motoring publication noted that the Tesla Semi’s Megachargers installed on the Modesto facility could provide around 750 kW of power, or about three times the output of the company’s Supercharger V3 network.
The cables for the Tesla Semi’s Megachargers are thick, though they are reportedly easy to manage compared to some DC fast charging networks in the market. Charging the Semi from almost empty to 70% typically takes about 30 minutes. A full charge all the way to 100% reportedly takes around 90 minutes.
Physical Controls
While the Tesla Semi’s controls are mostly centered on its two infotainment systems, the vehicle also sports several physical buttons. Among these are the parking brake, trailer-brake air supply, and the vehicle’s hazards. Other physical controls include stalks similar to those found in the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, though some buttons on the steering wheel resemble those in the new Model S and Model X.
Interior Space
The cabin of the Tesla Semi is cavernous, similar to the company’s other vehicles. MotorTrend noted that there’s enough space to enable a six-foot person to walk around and stretch in the Tesla Semi’s 3×7 foot cabin. So far, PepsiCo’s drivers seem to like the Semi, with some telling the motoring publication that the all-electric truck was very comfortable and “drove like a car.”
Other Details
The use of the Tesla Semi’s dual infotainment systems is quite interesting. The right display functions as the Tesla Semi’s main infotainment unit, while the left display exclusively shows pertinent information about the truck, such as its tire pressure. The windows in the Semi’s cabin also open when needed, though they do not roll down. Some space in the cabin also seem to be reserved for customers who wish to order the Tesla Semi with a sleeper cabin. Images taken of the Semi’s displays also confirm that the vehicle is equipped with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving computer.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next trillion dollar bet has nothing to do with rockets, Musk tells staff
Elon Musk told SpaceX staff AI revenue will soon dwarf rockets and Starlink combined entirely.
Elon Musk told SpaceX employees this week that artificial intelligence, not rockets, will soon carry the company’s revenue. In a roughly 29 minute internal address posted on SpaceX’s X account on Tuesday, Musk said AI revenue will pass every other line of business at SpaceX “probably in September” and pull further ahead by the fourth quarter.
The numbers he gave are specific. SpaceX currently runs 1.4 gigawatts of AI compute capacity. Musk wants that at 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, a jump he tied directly to revenue: “if we bring 10GW of AI online by the end of next year, it will be $300 billion to $500 billion a year in revenue.” He called those “big numbers,” which undersells a projection larger than what most countries produce in a year.
We made rockets reusable and are rebuilding the internet in space. The next challenge: making life multiplanetary and understanding the true nature of the universe
Watch @ElonMusk deliver a company update to @SpaceX employees pic.twitter.com/5c8rxoCQfu
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 11, 2026
Musk went further on where AI fits into SpaceX’s future. “Probably in four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value of SpaceX,” he told staff, adding that digital intelligence would eventually run “a trillion times” ahead of biological intelligence as computing scales. He tied that growth to the company’s founding mission, telling employees “we must win on AI, because the future is overwhelmingly AI and robots,” with the payoff meant to help fund Starship and a Mars program that increasingly runs through Terafab, the joint Tesla, SpaceX and xAI chip plant.
Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry
None of this is entirely new territory. SpaceX told investors much the same story during its first earnings call as a public company on August 4, where Musk moved the company’s $1 trillion revenue target up a year to 2030 and said Starlink could someday carry a majority of the world’s internet. What the all hands video adds is a hard deadline and a specific power figure Musk had not given publicly before, along with a franker pitch to his own workforce that AI, not launch cadence, is now the thing SpaceX is betting its future on.
The AI revenue itself is not coming from SpaceX training its own models. It is largely Starlink acting as the network layer for xAI’s workloads, plus SpaceX renting out compute capacity directly, the same approach behind the roughly $16 billion the company spent on AI infrastructure in a single quarter.
Musk closed the video with a pitch aimed at recruiting and retention rather than investors, telling employees that anyone who helps SpaceX win the AI race will eventually get the chance to go to the moon or Mars themselves. Whether SpaceX can turn 1.4 gigawatts into 10 in seventeen months is the more immediate question, and one that will show up in quarterly numbers well before anyone leaves Earth.
In a new note to investors on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco said that Tesla has one big financial question to answer for investors regarding its Robotaxi rollout, Full Self-Driving software, and Optimus.
Percoco said in the note that, for the most part, investors are still very positive about the direction the company is headed. However, there are some things the firm would like to see, and they have to do with financials.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla bulls are more than convinced that the company’s Full Self-Driving software is proof it can develop physical AI. Financially, however, there are still some questions, especially on elevated spending, which CEO Elon Musk said would occur as the company works to roll out Robotaxi faster and continue developing its Optimus robot.
The latter two are where Tesla will have to prove progress to investors, as Percoco writes that both projects “will require clearer evidence that Robotaxi is scaling and more tangible Optimus proof points to support the ROI on elevated capex.”
Percoco said the second quarter earnings call did not change his long-term thesis of where Tesla is positioned in the AI race, which is out in front. However, there are concerns that weaker gross margins and higher R&D spend will stress financials, and that has “sharpened our (and investors’) focus on measurable progress across Robotaxi and Optimus.”
Additionally, Robotaxi still needs to be proven with more operation in existing cities while maintaining safety but improving how many rides it gives in any given time, he said. For Optimus, Percoco wrote that he is “still looking for evidence beyond commentary around SOP.”
Morgan Stanley put Percoco in charge of covering Tesla after long-time analyst Adam Jonas transitioned to the automotive side.
Currently, Morgan Stanley has a $415 price target on Tesla and a ‘Hold’ rating on the stock. It is trading at around $330 at the time of publication, which was 2:30 P.M. on the East Coast.
SpaceX’s massive investment in AI will make it a big winner, Argus Research said after the company’s successful earnings call last week.
The firm also upgraded shares to a Buy from Hold and set a $160 price target.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) is currently recovering from its heavy AI infrastructure investments, as it spent nearly $16 billion in Q2 alone. The company did this primarily by monetizing high-demand GPU compute capacity at a much faster pace than traditional data center economics would suggest.
Company CFO Bret Johnsen said that SpaceX would be able to pay back anything on new deployments within a year.
There are plenty of ways the company can do this:
Leasing excess compute capacity through contracts
SpaceX has already built Colossus and Colossus II, largely for its own model training. However, much of that capacity is already rented out to third parties. It already has major deals with Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI. These partnerships are adding billions per month to SpaceX’s spreadsheet.
High utilization driven by industry-wide scarcity
The demand for advanced AI training and inference capacity continues to exceed what is available for use. SpaceX can fill new racks quickly after they come online, so the capital deployed converts into revenue with minimal idle time.
Additionally, management and outside observers have described the new compute capital as behaving more like a cost-of-goods-sold than traditional multi-year capex, especially because of this rapid monetization pattern.
Capacity has already scaled from ~0.4 GW a year to 1.4 GW annually by the end of Q2. There are targets of more than 2 GW by year-end.
High incremental margins on the rental business once capacity is online
GPU cloud providers often operate at strong gross margins. SpaceX can monetize capacity that was already partially built or can be added efficiently. This means that incremental EBITDA margins on the rental revenue are usually high. This accelerates cash recovery relative to the gross capital outlay.
Parallel monetization of its own AI software and applications
Beyond pure infrastructure rental, SpaceX also generates revenue from Grok through subscriptions and usage, from X through ads, data, and other related services, enterprise APIs, and the planned integration of the Cursor coding tools acquisition.
These application layers ride on the same compute infrastructure and provide additional high-margin streams that could offset build-out costs. AI-segment revenue overall rose sharply to about $2.6 billion in Q2, according to Motley Fool. This was driven primarily by the infrastructure contracts, but the software side is also partially responsible.
Efficient, large-scale deployment and vertical integration advantages
SpaceX has emphasized the rapid construction of power and cooling infrastructure and favorable cost-per-megawatt economics relative to industry benchmarks in some disclosures.
Combined with its ability to scale capacity aggressively and the fact that many contracts start generating revenue within months of capacity coming online, the effective payback compresses dramatically compared with more conventional multi-year data-center projects.
SpaceX’s dominant near-term recovery path will turn the AI clusters into a hyperscale-style compute rental business for other leading AI companies while still using a portion for internal models.
SpaceX’s next trillion dollar bet has nothing to do with rockets, Musk tells staff
Tesla has one big financial question to answer for investors: Morgan Stanley
