Tesla Semi debuts at IAA Hannover: charger sales open in five European markets, still no price

Four days ago Tesla put the European specification of the Semi online and we worked through what the numbers mean for a driving day. Hanover was supposed to fill in the rest: price, ordering, the charging network. It filled in one of the three, and it is not the one most people were waiting for.

What Hanover actually confirmed

On Monday 14 September, the press day of IAA Transportation, Tesla showed the European-homologated Semi in public for the first time. Until now every photograph of the truck was of an American vehicle. The show runs from 15 to 20 September and Tesla is offering ride-alongs at its stand, which means the first European operators are getting seat time in the truck a full year before they can take delivery.

The clearest difference from the American Semi is at the corners of the cab. The European truck replaces the glass side mirrors with camera systems. That is not a styling choice: EU rules have allowed camera monitor systems in place of mirrors on heavy trucks for years, while the American federal standard FMVSS 111 still requires physical mirrors on commercial vehicles. The European version is therefore not simply the US truck with a different plug — it is a version that could not legally be sold in its home market.

The real announcement was about chargers

The substantive news from press day was not about the truck. Tesla opened its Semi Charging for Business programme in five European markets at once: Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Operators in those countries can now buy charging hardware from Tesla for their own premises, with a minimum order of two chargers.

Two products are on the list. The Megacharger is the headline unit, rated at up to 1.2 MW, although the European Semi itself accepts up to 800 kW and recovers roughly 60% of its range in half an hour. The Basecharger is the quiet one: 120 kW, intended for depot and overnight use, reaching the same 60% in about four hours.

That minimum order of two is worth reading twice. It tells you Tesla is not selling charge points, it is selling depot installations. For a haulier, that is a grid connection, a civil works budget and a planning decision — the kind of project that is measured in months of lead time rather than weeks, and that in several of these markets runs into a queue for heavy grid capacity. The truck arrives in 2027. The connection application does not wait for it.

No public network — by design

Tesla has not opened a single public Megacharger anywhere in Europe, and nothing at Hanover suggested one is coming. The invitation is for operators to "become part of the Semi charging network" by investing in chargers on their own sites.

This matters for how the 550 km figure should be read. Our calculation of 11 September still stands: at a realistic 80 km/h, the first 4.5-hour driving block is roughly 360 km, the mandatory 45-minute break covers a half-hour charge worth about 330 km, and the truck finishes a nine-hour driving day on one stop. But that arithmetic assumes the charger is where the truck stops. With a depot-only network it works beautifully for an A-to-B shuttle that returns to base, and not at all for open long-distance work across borders. The Semi's European case, for now, is the fixed-route fleet.

What did not change, and what is still missing

Everything in the truck specification from 11 September is intact: up to 550 km of range at 40 tonnes gross combination weight, a stated 1.0 kWh/km, three rear-axle motors delivering up to 800 kW, a kerb weight under 9,100 kg, an electric power take-off of up to 25 kW for refrigerated trailers, and deliveries from 2027. Tesla has added one architectural detail — the truck runs an 800-volt system. Production stays at the Nevada plant; no European assembly was announced.

The gaps are the same three we listed four days ago, and Hanover closed none of them. There is no European price. There is no order configurator — fleet operators still get a contact form. And there is still only a Standard Range version on the European list, while the American range includes a Long Range. Tesla has not said whether the Long Range will follow.

Why the Semi is still not in our catalogue

We said on 11 September that we would not add the Semi to the catalogue on the strength of a pre-launch page. Hanover has now happened, and we are still not adding it — for a concrete reason rather than caution.

Every electric truck in our catalogue carries a quoted battery capacity and a manufacturer's list price. Tesla publishes neither for the Semi. A pack of roughly 550 kWh can be derived from 1.0 kWh/km and 550 km of range, but a derived figure is not a specification, and we do not put arithmetic in a spec field where readers expect a manufacturer's number. The moment Tesla states a capacity and a European price, the Semi goes in.

What this means for a European fleet

The honest summary for an operator: the truck is real, it is homologated, you can ride in it this week, and you cannot buy it yet. What you can buy is the charging equipment — and given how long a heavy grid connection takes in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, that is genuinely the decision that is live now rather than in 2027.

If you are weighing a Semi depot against a DAF, Volvo or Scania tractor that you can order today, the useful comparison is not range against range. It is what your routes look like: a fixed shuttle that returns to base every night makes the Semi's depot-charging model an advantage, while open long-distance work across Europe makes it a constraint until a public network exists.