Jon Stewart (Cleanerwatt) did the math, and the brand-new Tesla Semi is twice as efficient as the Ford F-150. Think of how much heavier a Class 8 semi-truck is compared to a gas or diesel F-150.
One of Tesla’s claims to fame is making the most fuel-efficient automobiles ever. While some competitors have found similar levels of success in the market, most other electric vehicles aren’t nearly as efficient as Tesla’s, have less range, and cost more to fuel.
You can bet that when Tesla decided to produce a commercial vehicle, it did so with a keen eye toward efficiency and range. The automaker probably wouldn’t have tried to make a long-range semi-truck if it hadn’t already demonstrated that it could make the most aerodynamic, electricity-sipping vehicles possible in a wide variety of sizes and shapes.
Tesla has proven the Semi’s range of 500 miles on a single charge. The battery capacity was initially at 97 percent and depleted to 4 percent by the end of the test drive, meaning that the vehicle traveled 500 miles on only 93% of its power. The total weight of the hauler was an astounding 81,000 pounds at the time.
On top of that, Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted that the Tesla Semi is extremely energy efficient, consuming only about 1.7 kilowatt hours (kWh) per mile.
To make a fair comparison between the Tesla Semi and the Ford F-150, Cleanerwatt converted 1.7 kWh/mi to MPGe. To get to 20 MPGe for the Tesla Semi, he had to do some tricky math and a little bit of guesswork. It is common for full-size, four-wheel-drive gas-powered pickup trucks like the F-150 to achieve around 19 mpg.
