According to Elon Musk, the Tesla Semi has completed its maiden 500-mile travel with a full load on a single charge. The Tesla Semi is the new battery electric tractor unti from the automotive company, launched in 2017 and expected to go into series production next month.

Breaking the 500-mile range barrier is considered a significant operational step forward, although the claims are yet to be verified and the specification of the vehicle remains thin on the ground. The writers over at Top Electric SUV have produced a great round-up of what we know about the Tesla Semi, but there remains plenty of detail about the truck outstanding - unladen weight chief among the missing spec info. Back in May our sister title Commercial Motor was reporting European buyers had been invited to place orders for the vehicle, though we have seen little since from the company about its European roll-out plans.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed last night (27-Nov) that a Tesla Semi has now completed a 500-mile trip at 81,000lbs (36.76 tonnes).

The trips comes just in the nick of time, as Tesla is expected to deliver production versions of the truck to customers this week. Tesla has previously completed many shorter trips that confirmed the full range could reach 500 miles on a single charge. The announcement comes ahead of the Tesla event for the first Semi deliveries on Thursday, December 1.