Jay Leno has driven a lot of vehicles over the decades, so when he calls something genuinely impressive, it tends to land differently. In a new interview, the automotive legend shared his experience behind the wheel of the production Tesla Semi — and his verdict was unambiguous: it drives like a Tesla, just at the scale of a building.
"It's as fast as a Tesla, but it's like driving an office building," Leno said. "It's this huge thing that moves like right now." That snap of instant torque comes from three independent rear motors delivering up to 800 kW of drive power — no gearbox, no clutch, no drama. Leno specifically called out the absence of gear shifting as part of what makes the Semi "super easy and genuinely fun" to drive, which is a remarkable thing to say about a truck rated at 82,000 lbs gross combined weight.
On range and charging, Leno echoed the official Long Range specs directly: 500 miles on a full charge while hauling a maximum load, with 60% replenished in just 30 minutes via Tesla's Megachargers. Those chargers support peak speeds of 1.2 megawatts through an MCS 3.2 connector — the fastest charging rate available on any commercial truck today. According to CARB filings signed in April 2026, the Long Range Semi carries an 822 kWh usable battery pack built from Tesla's 4680 cells using NCMA lithium-ion chemistry.
This wasn't Leno's first time in the Semi — he drove a pre-production version back in October 2023 — but the production unit he reviewed recently is meaningfully different. Tesla shed roughly 1,000 lbs from the original prototype, bringing the Long Range model's curb weight to 23,000 lbs. That weight reduction directly translates to more payload capacity for fleet operators, which is ultimately what makes or breaks commercial truck economics.
Volume production at Gigafactory Nevada is on track for the first half of 2026, and Tesla has already deployed its first public Megacharger in Southern California, with more sites planned for summer. Leno's enthusiasm is good press, but the real test will come when fleets start logging real-world miles at scale — and those numbers are getting closer every week.
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Sources & reporting notes
The links below identify the material source records used for this report.
- @SawyerMerritt on X (2026-05-08T21:12:27.000Z) — Direct source
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