Tesla announces opening event for Semi factory in Nevada

Tesla will hold an official opening event for its Semi factory in Sparks, Nevada on September 24. The company posted the date on the Tesla Semi account on X.

The factory has already been running for months. The plant started high-volume production back in April, and the first truck came off the line on April 29. So this event lands nearly 5 months after the real milestone already happened.

The factory sits next to Gigafactory Nevada in Sparks and covers 1.7 million square feet. It’s part of a $3.6 billion expansion Tesla announced in 2023, and Tesla built it right next to the battery cell lines that supply the Semi’s structural battery pack. That layout removes a supply problem that slowed the truck program down for years.

At full output, the plant is built to turn out 50,000 Semis a year. Dan Priestley, who runs the Semi program at Tesla, has said the plant is still ramping up rather than running at full scale.

And the timeline has been long. Tesla first showed the Semi to the public in November 2017. Nine years passed between that unveiling and this factory opening, a small batch of hand-built trucks sent to customers like PepsiCo, and years of construction work in Nevada before the plant was ready.

Electric power behind the truck

Tesla builds the Semi in two versions. The Standard Range model covers 325 miles on a charge, and the Long Range version covers 500 miles, both rated while carrying a full load of up to 82,000 pounds.

The current design borrows several parts from the Cybertruck, including a 48-volt low-voltage electrical system and the same steering actuators. It also runs on 4680 battery cells, which Tesla says cuts down on manufacturing steps. On the operations side, the truck now works with a version of Tesla’s Powershare system that can power a refrigerated trailer directly.

Elon Musk has called the Semi a “TCO no-brainer,” arguing that its total cost of ownership beats a diesel truck over time, even though the sticker price runs close to double what a comparable diesel rig costs. State incentives have helped close that gap. California offers a subsidy of up to $200,000 per truck, and that program alone has driven more than 1,000 orders from buyers in the state.

Self-driving software still in the works

Every Semi coming off the Nevada line ships with the hardware needed for Full Self-Driving, ten exterior cameras, a camera inside the cab, and the onboard computer to run the software, even with FSD not turned on yet.

On Tesla’s Q2 2026 earnings call, Musk gave a rough timeline for the first time when an analyst asked when the Semi would get self-driving software. He said the company expects it to be working by late this year or early 2027.

Tesla’s software team is currently focused on passenger vehicles and the Cybercab first. Musk said autonomy work on the Semi will take “a bit of a backseat for the next six months or so” before picking back up. He highlighted the shortage of qualified truck drivers as the primary reason self-driving trucks are crucial to the company’s plans. He also said a self-driving Semi would also make the job safer and less tiring for the drivers who stay in the cab during the supervised phase.

Past Tesla events have often doubled as updates on production numbers and infrastructure, so an update on the Megacharger network could come up too. Tesla has been adding charging stations for the Semi along freight routes across the country, with Texas and California leading in planned locations so far. And, buyers and fleet operators interested in the truck will likely get their clearest picture of where the Semi program stands once the September 24 event actually happens.