Tesla has opened its first Semi Megacharger stations in the Southeast: an eight-stall site in Conley, just south of Atlanta, and a six-stall site in Ellabell, near Savannah, at a Pilot travel center. Each stall is rated for up to 1.2 MW. The two stations are roughly 220 miles apart on I-75 and I-16, giving the Tesla Semi its first public charging corridor outside California. The Ellabell station is also the first Megacharger to come out of Tesla's partnership with Pilot, a rollout originally expected to begin this summer.
The route matters because Savannah is one of the busiest container ports in the country, and much of its freight heads to Atlanta. Tesla rates the Standard Range Semi at 325 miles and the Long Range at 500 miles at 82,000 pounds, with a Megacharger able to restore up to 60% of range in 30 minutes. That means a Standard Range truck can leave the Savannah port area, drive to Atlanta, charge during the driver's break, and drive back — a 440-mile round trip that would otherwise be out of reach. The Ellabell location also sits near Hyundai's Metaplant, which uses hydrogen fuel cell trucks, highlighting competing zero-emission approaches in the same town.
The opening, however, comes later than planned and well short of Tesla's stated targets. Pilot confirmed the Ellabell station opened October 8, months after the partnership's first sites were due. Three more Pilot locations are preparing to open: a Flying J in Tulare, California; a Flying J in Fort Stockton, Texas; and a Pilot in North Las Vegas, Nevada, with nine more under construction. Tesla's public Megacharger list currently shows three sites — Vernon and Bloomington in California, plus Conley — with Ellabell not yet listed, for a total of four customer-facing sites and 26 stalls. That is far below the roughly 37 sites Tesla planned for 2026 and the 46 it wants by early 2027. The company also started volume production of the Semi at its Nevada factory two weeks ago and was named primary supplier on a 2,500-truck order, making the charging network's pace increasingly important. Electrek notes that Tesla could still accelerate in the final months of the year, but the gap remains significant.