Tesla opens California's first public one-megawatt charging station for its Semi truck

Tesla has opened in the Californian town of Bloomington its first public one-megawatt charging station, aiming to support Semi trucks operating in the area. The site, located at 18434 Valley Boulevard, features six charging points, each capable of delivering up to 1.2 megawatts. All of them also feature the MC2 connector, making them compatible with the Tesla Semi.

The MC2 –Megacharger 2– is the second-generation high-power interface designed for the production Semi. It is characterised by aligning with the industry-standard Megawatt Charging System (MCS), thereby replacing the previous proprietary connector. The Semi, which has already entered series production, can recover up to 60 per cent of its battery charge in half an hour. This means drivers of the Tesla truck can add several hundred kilometres of range during mandatory rest breaks, or make use of loading and unloading time for a quick refuel.

Ambitious target

Until now, Tesla had operated mainly at private facilities serving customer fleets and its own operations in California, Texas and Nevada. The opening of this one-megawatt charging station is, however, only a first step. The company has announced its intention to deploy a much wider network, with at least 64 stations across the United States, later extending into Canada as well.

The company briefly announced on social media the opening of its first public one-megawatt charging station. It should be noted, however, that a station located in Ontario, which no longer exists, was at the time considered the company’s first public one-megawatt charging station. Although that station had only two charging points and used the first-generation MC1 connector, supporting a maximum power of 750 kW.