Tesla has confirmed it will use the IAA Transportation commercial-vehicle show in Hannover, which runs from 15 to 20 September, to publish the specifications of the European Semi and further details of its market launch. The company's own phrasing left little room: "Der Semi kommt nach Europa" — the Semi is coming to Europe.
That is a change of posture rather than a change of plan. Tesla brought a Semi to the same Hannover show in 2024 and said nothing whatsoever about when this side of the Atlantic might get one. Two days ago the largest Semi order ever placed — Einride's 500 trucks — turned out to contain not a single European unit. Hannover is the first time Tesla has attached a venue and a date to the European question.
What has actually been promised
Narrowly: the specification of the European version, and further detail on the planned market launch. Not a price list, not an open order book, not a delivery date. Tesla's entry in the IAA exhibitor directory disappeared on Thursday, which briefly read as a withdrawal; the announcement followed instead.
The European truck is not the American one
Figures for a European Semi are already sitting on Tesla's regional sites, ahead of a launch reported for 2027. They differ from the North American truck in ways that matter to an operator.
| European listing | North American Semi | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross combination weight | 40 t | 82,000 lb (37.2 t) |
| Kerb weight | 9,100 kg | — |
| Drive power | up to 800 kW | up to 800 kW |
| Range (Standard / Long) | ~523 km / ~805 km | 325 mi / 500 mi |
| Battery (Standard / Long) | — | 548 kWh / 822 kWh |
| Consumption | ~1.06 kWh/km | ~1.7 kWh/mile |
| ePTO output | up to 25 kW | — |
| US price (Standard / Long) | — | $260,000 / $290,000 |
The 40-tonne line is the significant one. It is the standard European limit for an articulated combination, and a truck homologated to it slots into existing European haulage contracts without special dispensation. The 25 kW electric power take-off is the other quietly practical number, because it is what runs a refrigerated trailer without a diesel unit bolted to the front of it.
Charging is the bigger change
The European listing puts fast charging on MCS — the Megawatt Charging System that European operators are standardising on — at a peak of up to 1.2 MW, with up to 60% of range recovered in half an hour. In North America the Semi charges through Tesla's own megawatt connector.
If that holds through homologation, a European Semi is a truck that can use somebody else's megawatt charger, and somebody else's truck can use Tesla's. For a network that barely exists yet on either side, shared standards are worth more than a proprietary advantage.
What to hold lightly
Pre-launch specifications on a regional website are not a homologated data sheet, and Tesla has not confirmed that what is listed matches what it will build. No European price has been published, no European delivery date exists, and European range figures under WLTP-equivalent heavy-duty testing have not been released — the numbers above are the American cycle.
What is firm is the calendar. Series production began in April 2026 at the dedicated plant beside Gigafactory Nevada in Sparks, a building sized for 50,000 trucks a year, and Tesla has now committed to answering the European question in public on a known date. After two years of saying nothing in the same hall, that is the news.