Pilot and Tesla open 1.2 MW truck charging on a freight route

Six stalls at Pilot #1390, 130 Interstate Exchange Way in Ellabell, Georgia, are open for the Tesla Semi at up to 1.2 megawatts each. Pilot and Tesla announced them on 8 October. WJCL placed the travel center near Interstate 16's mile marker 143. Commercial Carrier Journal called the site just outside Savannah, and Electrek put the same address about 20 miles west of the city. A driver is at a working truck plaza, with room for a tractor-trailer, food and parking, rather than at a charger in a private yard.

The half-hour claim is not one number. Pilot's 8 October release says Tesla puts recovery at 60 percent of charge in 30 minutes at that power. Paul Allen, Tesla's senior manager of fleet integration, told WJCL the Ellabell post is meant to support recovering 60 percent of the truck's energy in that same half hour. Tesla's Semi specifications page lists a different figure, up to 70 percent of range in 30 minutes, and it lists range as approximately 300 or 500 miles. In January, Pilot quoted Tesla a third way: the majority of a 500-mile range in 30 minutes, set against a mandated driving break. Percent of charge, percent of energy and percent of range are not interchangeable, and none of them is an independently published session from this site.

On 27 January, Pilot said the first sites would open in summer 2026. Each would have four to eight stalls, using Tesla's V4 cabinets, the power cabinets that feed the posts, at up to 1.2 megawatts. The states named then were California, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, along Interstate 5, Interstate 10 and other freight corridors. The 8 October release describes the plan as California, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada and Texas. New Mexico has dropped off Pilot's own later list, Indiana has appeared, and the company has not explained the change.

Six stalls at Ellabell fit the four-to-eight pattern. The date does not. Twelve more heavy-duty sites are under construction. Pilot named three as close: Flying J #1071 at 979 E. Paige Avenue in Tulare, California, scheduled for 9 October; Flying J #553 at 2571 N. Front Street in Fort Stockton, Texas; and Pilot #341 at 3812 E. Craig Road in North Las Vegas. Texas and Nevada have no date in the release.

Shannon Sturgil, Pilot's senior vice president of alternative fuels, said, "Pilot is proud to bring heavy-duty charging directly to key trucking routes and pair it with the services and amenities drivers rely on." The test of that sentence is whether a loaded combination can enter, charge and leave on a break, without the plaza turning into a queue.

1.2 megawatts is 1,200 kilowatts, more than three times the 350 kilowatt rate often quoted for a fast passenger-car charger. Tesla's Megacharger post page lists 1.2 megawatts, 1,500 amps continuous, a voltage range up to 1,000 volts, and a cable 3 metres long. On a tractor-trailer, 3 metres means the inlet has to be next to the dispenser. The same page marks a payment terminal as optional, which describes the product Tesla sells, not the hardware standing in Ellabell. Pilot has not published a price per kilowatt-hour for the site, so the announcement still will not tell a fleet how the session compares with diesel.

The January release said charging would start with the Tesla Semi and might later cover other manufacturers' heavy trucks. WJCL reported the present limit more bluntly: passenger Teslas and other vehicles cannot use these chargers.

Ellabell alone does not join Savannah to Atlanta, and it does not replace a depot charger at either end of a shift. Electrek reported that, on the same day, Tesla's Semi account said new Megacharger sites between Atlanta and Savannah were online. Electrek's reading of Tesla's location page put the Atlanta end in Conley, eight stalls at 1820 Rock Cut Road near Interstates 285 and 675, about 220 miles from Ellabell, and not part of the Pilot deal. Electrek also wrote that Tesla's public list showed Conley plus Vernon and Bloomington in California, and did not yet show Ellabell.

Set Tesla's longer range figure, about 500 miles, against that 220-mile hop and a one-charge run looks comfortable on paper. The shorter figure, about 300 miles, leaves less room once load, speed and temperature show up. That is a comparison of published numbers, not a road test. What a driver still learns only on arrival is whether all six Ellabell stalls hold power together, what a fault does to the line, and which of the named Flying J and Pilot sites open when Pilot said they would. The stalls in Ellabell are real. The unpublished price, the missed summer target and a second Georgia site that belongs to Tesla rather than Pilot are the open problems.