Semi Runs on Less

48 hours, 1600 miles, 80,000 pounds of cargo - and only 5 charging stops. Pepsi’s Tesla Semi spent two days absolutely crushing the idea of what an electric tractor trailer can accomplish at the Run on Less event that has been running since September 11th.

Run on Less is a competition of sorts, where several companies who own electric freight vehicles allow observers from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency to record data while the drivers make their deliveries. The objective is to not only prove that electric freight vehicles can be a viable replacement for diesel-powered trucks - but also to help showcase the factors that makes an electric fleet possible, like charging infrastructure.

As one of the participants, PepsiCo put one of their brand new Tesla Semis up for consideration. The company has had these vehicles since they took delivery of the first batch from Tesla during an event on December 1st, 2022.

And while it’s safe to say that PepsiCo have been seeing some great success with their new electric fleet - the numbers from this event show a staggering amount of efficiency.

Courtesy: Run on Less

Pepsi’s run began on the 13th and over the next 24 hours, you can see the truck only taking stops for deliveries, and for a more minor charge that was meant to extend some range until the a big charge just passed noon - notice the steep line for the charge here, it will be important in just a moment.

Across both days, the Semi only stopped for deliveries, three major charges, and two smaller ones to extend the range a bit. Other than that, the vehicle was almost in constant motion - and was almost always loaded with a full 80,000 pounds in the trailer. 

Freight companies tend to take on new inventory at the places they deliver to in order to keep things efficient - the Semi would drop off a load of soda, and pick up some water, then drop off some water and pick up some gatorade. So it’s important to remember that this test is being performed under a near constant full load.

Now let’s talk about that steep charge line.

The Semi is clearly able to hold a charge for a particularly long time - thanks in part to its regenerative braking, which takes the engine’s kinetic energy and uses it to charge the batteries while the accelerator is disengaged.

But the real efficiency gains are made while fast-charging the truck at a megacharging station.

The 750 kilowatt charger made very short work of topping up the Semi’s batteries, but it couldn’t have done so with just any battery setup. According to observers, the Semi went from roughly 5 percent battery charge to 80 percent - in under an hour. This simply could not have been done with older technology - the batteries would be fried by the intense heating that comes with charging at those speeds.

Luckily, both the Tesla megacharger and the Semi itself come with extra cooling - and the results are some amazing efficiencies.

We have been seeing a lot of great benefits for PepsiCo with their new Tesla Semi fleet this year. In about six months, they’ve gone from taking delivery of their new trucks, to making plans to change over most of their fleet - and of course events like the Run on Less competition really lets us see why. The Tesla Semi can easily go toe-to-toe with its more conventional peers.