Tesla's new electric semi truck could work wonders for cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions

Tesla unveiled its electric semi truck on Thursday night to much fanfare. The company claims the truck can go 500 miles on a single electric charge, and utilize a "Megacharger" to charge up to 400 miles in only 30 minutes. These are some pretty impressive statistics, and if Tesla is able to penetrate the market, its semi has the potential to take a lot of gas guzzlers off the road.

As we can see in this chart from Statista, heavy duty trucks, a category that includes semis, are the second biggest contributor to transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Telsa CEO Elon Musk said production will begin in 2019, and that reservations can be made for $5,000 in advance.

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