Tesla Semi Stops Off At UPS, JB Hunt, Other Key Customers In Cross-Country Tour

The Tesla Semi took to the streets over the last few days, visiting key customers across the nation, including UPS and JB Hunt along with the requisite stops at the California Highway Patrol checkpoints along the way.

https://twitter.com/IllinoisUPSers/status/1034162090620141568

The UPS facility in Addison, Illinois, took to Twitter to talk about the visit, including a quick video of the Semi pulling in that reveals a row of employees lined up to shoot pictures and video of the Semi rounding the corner into the facility. The official Twitter account for UPS in Illinois comments that the Semi was “one smooth ride,” which makes sense, considering that it does away with the rambling diesel engines that drivers have grown accustomed to sitting on for hours at a time.

https://twitter.com/IllinoisUPSers/status/1034163909484335105

Farther along the line in Lowell, Arkansas, the Tesla Semi stopped off at another of the nation’s largest transportation providers, JB Hunt, where the Semi was met with a line of employees that rivals the lines of teen girls looking to purchase tickets for a Justin Bieber concert — albeit, with a bit less glitter.

The tweets and photos confirm Elon Musk’s claims that “most major customers have tried it & love it.” The cross-country tour was clearly more than just a public relations route, as it’s clear that media outlets were not invited to the events. Rather, the Semi was brought out just to show it to the companies who had expressed interest in the vehicle.

According to CEO Elon Musk, the Tesla Semi made the cross country trip using the existing Supercharger network along with an extension cord. It wasn’t just any extension cord — the Semi required an extension that would allow the Supercharger cable to reach the vehicle and convert the charger to the Megacharger receiver that the Semi uses to charge.

Tesla’s upscaled Megacharger charging port was identified on the vehicle by one eagle-eyed attendee at Tesla’s Semi event last year. The port was hidden under a large access panel on what would typically be the driver’s side of the vehicle. It featured the Tesla “T” logo that serves as a charging status indicator on the Model 3.

The new charging standard for the Semi adds even more connection ports to the existing Supercharging standard, with 8 charging pins — or four pairs — compared to the 2 primary charging connectors used with the Supercharging standard. Scaling up the charging speeds that the current Supercharging network is capable of at 4x the speed, the new standard should be able to take in a charging speed of at least 500kW, when used with a charging system capable of putting out that kind of power.