Pilot and Tesla open first Megacharger sites in Georgia and California, with more under construction

Pilot Travel Centers and Tesla have opened the first heavy-duty truck charging site under the partnership they announced in January. Six Megacharger stalls are now operating at Pilot #1390, 130 Interstate Exchange Way, in Ellabell, Georgia, Pilot announced on October 8. Each stall uses Tesla's V4 cabinet technology and, according to Tesla, can deliver up to 1.2 megawatts, enough for a Tesla Semi to recover 60% of its charge in 30 minutes. That is a per-stall rating, not a site total or a measured session.

A second site is now open as well: Flying J #1071 at 979 E. Paige Ave. in Tulare, California, which Pilot scheduled to open October 9, has since been announced by Tesla's charging account as a new four-stall Megacharger, Drive Tesla Canada reported.

What is next

Pilot's October 8 release counted 12 more heavy-duty locations under construction, each planned with four to eight stalls. Three were near completion and, in Pilot's words, "expected to come online soon"; Tulare was one of them and has since opened:

Site	Address	Status
Pilot #1390, Ellabell, Ga.	130 Interstate Exchange Way	Open, 6 stalls
Flying J #1071, Tulare, Calif.	979 E. Paige Ave.	Open, 4 stalls
Flying J #553, Fort Stockton, Texas	2571 N. Front St.	Near completion
Pilot #341, North Las Vegas, Nev.	3812 E. Craig Road	Near completion

The network is planned for select Pilot locations along I-5, I-10 and other freight corridors in California, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada and Texas. That list has shifted since January: FreightWaves notes the original announcement named New Mexico among the initial states, while the October release drops it and adds Indiana. Pilot said in January that the program would expand to about 20 locations, C-Store Dive reported.

Behind the original schedule

When the partnership was announced, Pilot said construction would start in the first half of 2026 and the first sites would open in the summer. The Georgia opening came in October instead, which FreightWaves describes as later than projected.

The timing tracks Tesla's truck program. Tesla began high-volume Semi production at its factory in Sparks, Nevada, on September 24, two weeks before the Ellabell opening, and it expects more than 30 charging stations and more than 200 megawatt-capable charging posts to be operating by year-end, Pilot sites included, FreightWaves reports. Outside the Pilot partnership, Tesla's map shows one other Megacharger in Georgia, near Atlanta, and two in Southern California, near Los Angeles and San Bernardino, according to C-Store Dive. The Georgia one, in Conley, has eight stalls, so with Ellabell there are now 14 Megacharger stalls between Atlanta and Savannah, Electrek reported.

How it compares

For comparison, Tesla's passenger-car Superchargers provide up to 250 kW, C-Store Dive notes. For Pilot, the Tesla deal is not its first in truck charging: it entered a partnership with Volvo for electric semi-truck charging in late 2022. Pilot, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway based in Knoxville, Tennessee, has more than 900 travel center locations across North America.

"Pilot is proud to bring heavy-duty charging directly to key trucking routes," Shannon Sturgil, Pilot's senior vice president of alternative fuels, said in the release, adding that the company is "excited to continue working with Tesla to move at the pace and preference of our customers."

What It Means for Drivers

Two open sites, on opposite coasts. Semi operators can now charge at Ellabell, Georgia, and Tulare, California.
Texas and Nevada are the next stops. Fort Stockton and North Las Vegas are near completion but not yet open, so routes through them still need another charging plan for now.
Built around the Semi. Tesla's charging-time figure is for the Tesla Semi, and the announcements describe the stalls as heavy-duty truck charging. Fleets running other makes should confirm access with Pilot or Tesla before dispatching to these sites.
Not for passenger cars. These are heavy-duty truck stalls. Pilot's charging for passenger EVs is a separate network, which the company says it is also expanding.