Tesla Semi. Credit: Top Gear Tech / Jack Scarlett
Top Gear Tech host Jack Scarlett got a first look at Tesla’s production Semi and a tour of the new Nevada Gigafactory built to build it, then rode along in a finished truck on public roads in the show’s debut episode.
Scarlett frames the vehicle as the finished article, not a clay model or pre-production mule, roughly eight years after the November 2017 unveil. A small pilot fleet reached customers in December 2022; Tesla says those trucks and later units have racked up about 17 million test miles feeding design tweaks into this production cut.
The new Sparks factory is a purpose-built Semi plant, about 1.7 million square feet and $3.6 billion, sized for 50,000 trucks a year, or about 1,000 a week at full rate. Plant staff told Scarlett the truck and the factory were designed together around build speed, reliability, and cost, not a diesel chassis converted late.
Key numbers called out on camera:
- Two battery options: about 548 kWh for standard range, with the long-range pack described as half that capacity again
- Claimed efficiency around 1.7 kWh per mile
- Range targets of roughly 325 or 500 miles, aimed at a typical regulated driving stint
- About 60 percent charge in 30 minutes during a mandated break
- Three motors, about 1,076 horsepower total; a high-torque axle for launch and climbs that can decouple at cruise so a efficiency-tuned motor carries the load
- 0-60 mph in about 12.5 seconds empty and about 24 seconds with a loaded trailer
- On a 3 percent grade, Tesla says the Semi can hold about 65 mph where a diesel often falls to about 50 mph
Production changes called out in the tour include a new Model Y-style face with a light bar, a three-piece front that can be replaced in sections after a bump, powder-coated bodywork instead of a liquid paint shop, a center driving seat with no left or right-hand drive tooling split, and a cab left open at the rear late on the line so big interior assemblies go in through the back. Battery packs use 4680 cells and share structure with the frame; long-range trucks add a third pack in the middle rather than a wholly different chassis.
Scarlett also notes Europe deliveries are on the board for 2027, which lines up with Tesla’s separate Europe Semi range pitch and the September Sparks factory rollout already on the calendar. Tesla has not put a public U.S. retail price or a firm weekly build rate for the open of volume production in the episode itself.
Cost talk in the ride stays California-flavored and illustrative: at roughly 20 cents per kWh and 1.7 kWh per mile, Scarlett’s Tesla guide puts energy near 34 cents a mile versus about a dollar a mile for diesel at seven dollars a gallon and seven miles per gallon, with payback often framed as under five years depending on local power and fuel. Those are operator examples, not a Tesla sticker guarantee.
For fleet buyers, the useful takeaway from the Top Gear Tech walkthrough is concrete: a dedicated Nevada line rated for tens of thousands of trucks a year, a production cab you can ride in, and efficiency and charge numbers aimed at fitting existing rest-break rhythms rather than inventing new stops. Whether that is enough to move Class 8 buyers still sits with route data, Megacharger access, and purchase price Tesla has not locked in on camera.
