Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker contends that Tesla's (TSLA) promised upcoming reveal of its autonomous, electric Class 8 semi-truck could be the biggest catalyst in the trucking sector in decades.

While no exact date has been announced yet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the reveal will come in September and Shanker thinks the NACV show in Atlanta on September 25 "could be a catalyst for the reveal."

Tesla will have to clearly address the issues of range, charging time and payload/weight to be able to sell a "deeply skeptical" industry, added Shanker, who sees Schneider National (SNDR), FedEx (FDX), XPO Logistics (XPO) and Ryder (R) as among the most likely carrier partner contenders for Tesla.