A new heavy-duty charging site in Bryan County could help ease the transition to electric for trucking fleets on I-16, an option made more appealing by soaring diesel prices.
The Pilot Travel Center in Ellabell on Thursday unveiled a bay of six new Tesla Megachargers, each rated for up to 1.2 MW. That means each can add about 300 miles of charge to a Tesla Semi in about 30 minutes.
Tesla makes both a standard range semi that can travel 325 miles on a full charge and long range semi truck that can go 500 miles. Both of these Class 8 vehicles, the heaviest category of commercial motor vehicle in the US, were on display at Pilot.
For trucking fleets, electric is cheaper to operate per mile, said Jason Gies, Tesla’s East Coast business development lead for semis. That was true even before the recent spike in diesel price.
“From just a fuel perspective, it’s about 50% cheaper,” he said. “So from here to Atlanta, it’s about $80 in the Tesla Semi if you charged here. If you were driving a diesel last year, it would probably be $160.”
AAA reported diesel in the Savannah area averaged $5.68 a gallon on Friday.
Electric semis, like electric passenger vehicles, tend to cost more upfront. The median price of a 2025 U.S. battery-electric Class 8 tractor was $411,200, while the median price of a diesel equivalent was $172,500, according to the publication Transport Topics.
“So if you run around 75,000 – 100,000 miles a year, you will see a return (on investment) pre-high diesel prices that they are now, in about three to four years,” Gies said.
More routes planned
Closer to Atlanta, Tesla opened an eight-stall Megacharging site in Conley just south of the city on Wednesday.
“This route is going to be one of our core centers of where we’re going through the next year as we grow,” Gies said in his prepared remarks. “But this is just the beginning, folks. This year we’ll have over 100 posts in the ground running with mega charging. By the end of next year, our goal is to have 700 posts for mega charging.”
Pilot has 12 additional truck charging sites planned this year across California, Indiana, Nevada, and Texas, Shannon Sturgil, senior vice president of alternative fuels for Pilot said at the ribbon cutting Thursday. Ultimately, the company aims to create charging network access across key freight lines of the U.S., he said.
“Our goal is simpler: to help remove barriers, increase confidence, and make it easier for fleets to operate wherever the road may take them,” Sturgil said.
Knoxville-based Pilot is the largest travel center network in North America, with over 900 locations.
A September report from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Atlas noted that public and private investment in charging infrastructure for medium and heavy-duty electric vehicles in the Southeast totaled about $366 million and that efforts were beginning to shift from planning to implementation.
“As of June 30, 2026, the Southeast had more than 90 public charging sites accessible to MDHD EVs, 50 percent more than the previous year,” the report states.
Electric heavy duty trucks have been adopted more rapidly in China and in Europe than in the U.S., the International Energy Agency reports.
Less air pollution, easier on drivers
Along with cost benefits, electric semis are also healthier than diesel from a clean air standpoint, Gies said.
“It’s a zero emissions vehicle,” he said. “Diesels are the most polluting vehicles in the country.”
Gies drove the 325-mile-range semi from Conley to Ellabell himself. The driver’s seat sits in the middle of the cab, providing better visibility and better aerodynamics, he said. Drivers, himself included, find the electric semi less taxing to operate because it vibrates less than a diesel truck, he said.
“It’s just the smoothness of delivery. The other thing is, this truck is 1076 horsepower. So when you’re getting onto the expressway, it can merge with the speed of traffic. You’re always able to keep up with the flow of traffic. You can set the control, and if you’re in the hills, your speed’s always consistent. So you’re never that slow down, speed back up thing. So you’re just comfortable all the time.”
Conni Reynolds climbed up into the cab of the semi as Gies was showing off its interior. Living across the street from the port, she’s very familiar with truck traffic. As director of executive events & strategic projects at the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, she welcomed the new technology of electric semis.
“You know, Savannah is something that embraces the history and innovation at the same time,” she said. “So that’s what’s exciting to see.”
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