Tesla Hopes to Build Semi Truck-Charging Route From Texas to California

As reported by Bloomberg News, Tesla Inc. is seeking nearly $100 million from the US to build nine electric semi-truck charging stations along a route from the southern border of Texas to northern California.

In emails from Tesla executives to the Texas Department of Transportation between May and early July, Bloomberg reports that the company proposed each charging station be equipped with eight 750 kW chargers for Tesla Semi vehicles and four chargers for trucks made by its competitors.

Should this project be successful, it would be a first-of-its-kind charging network in the country that would enable long-haul electrified trucking from Texas to California, along with regional-haul trucking in Texas, Arizona, and California.

According to Bloomberg, Tesla executives told Texas officials the corridor could qualify for federal grants that will be disbursed as part of a major new bipartisan infrastructure program created to modernize US transit systems, among other aims. Tesla asked the state officials to write a letter in support of the big rig-charging project to include in its funding application, which was submitted in June.

When asked by Bloomberg, a representative for the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, which is overseeing the grants, said the agency is “currently reviewing applications.” It expects to announce recipients “later this year.”