How Much Does The Tesla Semi Weigh?

September 1st, 2019 by Johnna Crider

Tesla owner and YouTuber GeauxTesla has weighed in on how much he thinks the Tesla Semi weighs. GeauxTesla is a truck driver who also loves making videos of his Tesla and also drives for Uber and Lyft.

He saw the California Highway Patrol post on Facebook photos of the Tesla Semi carrying a haul of cinderblocks.

This inspired him to ask a question that many drivers probably want to know (how much the Tesla Semi weighs), and then share his thoughts about that question in a video. He did a bit of research and added in calculations from his own truck and experience.

His estimate is that the cement blocks on the haul were around 10,000 pounds each.

“You can also tell by the number of straps they are using that each set of bricks isn’t over 10,000 pounds,” he says in the video. His trailer weighs about 15,000 pounds and, in comparison, the trailer on the Tesla Semi at that time was just a flatbed, so it could weigh between 8,000–12,000 pounds. He meets in the middle and guesses it to be 10,000 pounds. He then does the math:

If the total weight was 75,000 pounds, and the load was 40,000 pounds (10,000 × 4), and if the trailer is 10,000 pounds, then the Tesla Semi is 25,000 pounds.

He hopes this is the 500 mile range version of the truck. The weight puts it over any other day cab and puts it more in line with the more powerful trucks.

“Another thing that you’ll notice is that they went with the spread axle flatbed trailer and that’s a hint letting you know that they’ll want to put a little more weight on the trailer as opposed to the truck since you’re limited to how much you can put on the axels.”

He explains why this weight is an important factor in the trucking industry.

“On a normal setup you’re allowed 12,000 pounds on the steer axles, 34,000 pounds on the drive tandems, and 34,000 pounds on the trailer tandems. But when you split the trailer tandems up more than 8 feet apart, you’re allowed 20k pounds on each axle.” What he is referring to are the Commercial Vehicle Weight Laws.

The law says you have a max weight of 20,000 pounds on a single axle if the tires are rated for 20,000 pounds. However, when you have a group of axles, they are allowed 34,000 pounds because of their close grouping which are also known as tandems. These can be slid forward or backward to adjust the weight.

If you split them, then the 34,000-pound limit goes down to 20,000 pounds per axle.

If from the math that GeauxTesla has done the Tesla Semi does weigh 25,000 pounds, it is very close to the weight limit.

The last question that GeauxTesla wanted to know about the Tesla Semi in the Facebook post was:

“Is this the 300-mile range truck or 500-mile range truck?”

He surmises that the 500-mile range truck will be heavier and weigh 5,000 pounds more than the 300-mile range truck, and thinks that this is why they were testing at 75,000 pounds, which is just under the 80,000-pound limit. Furthermore, the truck in the Facebook post looks more like the smaller semi truck in the CleanTechnica pictures below.











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