A British Columbia trucking company is preparing to become one of Canada’s first Tesla Semi fleet operators, with 12 electric trucks expected to arrive next year. While they may not be the first Canadian company to take delivery of a Tesla Semi, they will become the first in the country to install Tesla’s Megachargers.
According to a report by Electric Autonomy, R.R. Plett Trucking will begin installing the 1.2 MW chargers next month at its headquarters in Langley, along with another facility in Kamloops. That should give the company plenty of time to complete construction before its fleet of 12 Tesla Semis are delivered in June 2027.
BC Hydro is involved in the project to provide the necessary electrical capacity, and the company eventually plans to make the chargers available to other fleets.
For R.R. Plett, the dozen Tesla Semi’s won’t be its first foray into electric trucking, with the company already operating eight Volvo VNR electric trucks on routes serving the Port of Vancouver.
However, the Semi’s range and weight advantages are expected to open up additional routes. The Standard Range Semi offers 523 km (325 miles) of range, compared to the 300–350 km the company currently gets from its Volvo trucks.
The new charging infrastructure will also allow R.R. Plett to operate its electric trucks more frequently.
“You can cut charging time from three hours [with DC fast charging] down to 30 minutes with the [Megachargers], which will help us double shift those trucks,” Plett explained.
R.R. Plett has big electrification plans and aims to establish an electric trucking corridor between Vancouver and Calgary, with additional charging locations being considered in Golden and Calgary.
The announcement comes just days before Tesla’s September 24 inauguration of its new high-volume Semi factory in Sparks, Nevada, which is designed to eventually produce approximately 50,000 trucks annually.
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