Tesla Semi adds another fleet as Paper Transport starts Chicago pilot

Wisconsin trucking company Paper Transport is testing Tesla's Semi electric truck for dedicated routes in the Chicago area. This is a trial, not a full purchase — the company is checking how the truck performs on set routes with predictable mileage, which makes it easier to plan charging around a known daily schedule.

This follows Tesla's move in April to start higher-volume production of the Semi at a dedicated factory in Nevada, built to eventually turn out up to 50,000 trucks a year. The truck now comes in two versions: a 325-mile Standard Range and a 500-mile Long Range, the one Paper Transport is testing. Tesla has quoted prices around $260,000 and $290,000 for these trucks, well below the roughly $435,000 average cost of other electric heavy trucks. Other companies, including ArcBest and PepsiCo, are already running Tesla Semis, and larger companies like Walmart, UPS, and J.B. Hunt have reservations in place.

None of this changes anything for home energy upgrades directly — this is about commercial freight trucks, not household equipment. But it's a sign that battery-electric technology is scaling up fast in trucking, partly because charging networks, called Megachargers, are expanding across states. If you're curious about the broader shift toward electrification and lower energy costs, it mirrors trends showing up in home energy choices too, like solar and heat pumps, where upfront costs are falling as adoption grows.