Tesla Semi Chargers Planned For Pilot Travel Centers

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.


Or support our Kickstarter campaign!

Recently, there has been some encouraging EV charger news for passenger vehicles, with new chargers announced for retail outlets owned by Kroger and Walmart in a variety of states. Sheetz and WaWa also have an impressive number of EV chargers operating at some of their stores.

Pilot is recognized as having the largest network of travel centers in North America, with over 900 locations. Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is another leading travel center and it also has some EV charging options. While Pilot’s travel centers also have some EV chargers for passenger vehicles, Pilot recently announced it has agreed with Tesla to install Tesla Semi Chargers across some of its travel centers in California, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

In California, the Tesla and Pilot Semi chargers will be installed along the state’s major transportation artery, I-5, which spans the whole state from North to South. I-10 is a primary freeway in the Los Angeles area and east of the huge metropolis. The Tesla heavy-duty truck chargers will be installed at Pilot Centers along it as well.

“Helping to shape the future of energy is a strategic pillar in meeting the needs of our guests and the North American transportation industry. Heavy-duty charging is yet another extension of our exploration into alternative fuel offerings, and we’re happy to partner with a leader in the space that provides turnkey solutions and deploys them quickly,” said Shannon Sturgil, senior vice president, alternative fuels at Pilot.

The Pilot Travel Centers receiving the new Tesla semi chargers will have 4 to 8 charging stalls per center. Each charger will be able to deliver 1.2 MW of power. The new chargers are intended for Tesla Semis, but in the future they may be augmented for compatibility with other electric “big rig” trucks.

Electric vehicle adoption is supported by the presence of public EV charging infrastructure. The Tesla Semi differs from EVs used for personal transportation, mainly because so far it has not been widely available.

The Tesla Semi was announced as a concept prototype in about 2017, and may go into production in the spring of 2026. If Tesla has agreed to install more Tesla Semi chargers at Pilot Travel Centers, one might expect it is because there will soon be more Tesla Semis operating on various cargo routes. However, the history of the Tesla Semi and its delays seems to cast doubt on a scenario where increasing numbers of Tesla Semis soon hit the interstates and highways.

Perhaps it is both the increasing number of non-Tesla heavy-duty electric trucks and the upcoming production of more Tesla Semi trucks that necessitates the installation of more Tesla Semi chargers.

“The United States has seen rapid growth in battery electric MDHV sales in recent years. There were only a few hundred electric MHDVs sold per year before 2021, and in 2024 alone there were over 120,000 sold. The vast majority of this overall growth is Class 2 B–3 vehicles, but Class 4–8 vehicle sales are also growing (see Figure 2).

“Note that in recent years, more and more electric passenger trucks fall under Classes 2B-3 due to the increased weight of the battery pack, even though their performance characteristics are roughly the same as equivalent Class 2A internal combustion engine vehicles. While vans and buses are a smaller portion of the overall sales in this category, annual sales of vans and buses have still increased from zero to nearly 18,000 between 2020 and 2024.”