Tesla’s big electric truck faces an even bigger infrastructure challenge

What happened

The 500-mile Semi arrives as charging gaps still limit electric trucking. Nearly a decade later, Tesla officially launched high-volume production at a livestreamed but invite-only event at the company’s factory.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted investors think of his electric automaker as a robotics and autonomous vehicle company now. He’s targeted a $20 trillion valuation—nearly four times the value of market leader Nvidia —on that premise.

But his Tesla team was in Sparks, Nevada, on Thursday to focus on, well, an electric vehicle: the long-awaited Tesla Semi . The Semi concept first rolled onto a Tesla event stage in late 2017 .