California has had the Semi’s charging story to itself all year. This week, Georgia crashed the party.
Tesla and Pilot opened their first joint Megacharger site, and a second Georgia station lit up a day earlier. Together that’s 14 new stalls between Atlanta and Savannah, the first real Semi charging corridor outside the West Coast. We’ve had Ellabell on our charging map → since the April permit. Now it’s open.
Ellabell: Pilot’s First Tesla Megacharger
The site is Pilot #1390 at 130 Interstate Exchange Way, near I-16 exit 143. It has six stalls, each rated up to 1.2 MW and built on Tesla’s V4 cabinet tech. Tesla’s claim is about 60% charge in 30 minutes. One catch from early coverage: the bays are back-in only, no pull-through.
Pilot and Tesla announced this partnership in January and expected first sites by summer, so this one is roughly a season late. Better late than never. Dan Priestley’s reaction was short and sweet:
“First of many with Pilot Flying J!”
Conley: First Megacharger on the East Coast
Tesla’s own Semi account called the 8-stall Conley site the first Megacharger on the East Coast. It’s not a Pilot site, and per Electrek and others it has pull-through stalls, which matters a lot when a tractor still has a trailer on the hook. Energized just before Ellabell, it makes Georgia the first non-California state with working public Megachargers.
What’s Next at Pilot
Pilot says 12 more Pilot and Flying J sites are under construction, with each location getting four to eight stalls. Three are close to done:
* Flying J #1071, Tulare, California
* Fort Stockton, Texas
* North Las Vegas, Nevada
That’s three more states on the board. Fort Stockton sits in West Texas freight country. Watch the Las Vegas one in particular, since Electrek notes Tesla just filed for a Semi service center nearby.
The Cost Per Mile Math
Tesla’s post pegged California diesel at over $1.00 a mile versus about $0.60 on its Megacharger network. EIA backs up the diesel side: U.S. diesel averaged $6.199 the week of Oct. 5, down from a $6.529 record on Sept. 21st but about $2.49 above last year. California sat near $8.08. At 6.5 mpg, that’s roughly $0.95 a mile nationally and $1.24 in California.
Our math on the Tesla figure: $0.60 at 1.7 kWh a mile works out to around 35 cents a kWh, so public charging costs more than depot charging. Plug in at your own yard at $0.12-$0.20 per kWh and you’re at roughly $0.20-$0.34 a mile. Run your own route in our Range Calculator → and see the full breakdown in our price and TCO Guide ->.
40+ Semis on the Lot in Nevada
Our favorite drone pilot, @HinrichsZane, spotted 40+ new Semis at the Nevada factory in one flyover. Mass production looks a lot less abstract with that many trucks in a row. Catch the Sparks launch details in our Factory Rollout Coverage →.
Where We’re Tracking Next
Georgia proves the model. Pilot’s truck stops are the “charge where you already stop” play, and Conley shows Tesla still builds its own sites too. Every open, permitted, and coming-soon site lives on our charging map →, and the fleets plugging into them are on our orders tracker →.
Spot a permit or a new site? contact@teslasemi.com or @mrjavierjose on X.
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