Tesla Delivers Its First Electric Semi Trucks (electrek.co) 136
Electrek recaps yesterday's Tesla's Semi Delivery Event in Nevada: As expected, Tesla delivered the first electric trucks to PepsiCo, a long-time reservation holder, and held a presentation to reveal more details about the production version of the Tesla Semi. There wasn't any big surprise during the presentation. Tesla basically delivered on its original promises made in 2017 when it first unveiled the prototypes of the Tesla Semi. Despite the lack of major changes, it's still a big moment since the electric truck has the potential to change the trucking industry for good by eliminating emissions and significantly reducing costs.
In terms of the technology powering the truck, things have changed since the original prototypes, but not in any major ways. Tesla is now using a tri-motor drivetrain that is basically the same as in the Model S and Model X Plaid. Dan Priestley, Tesla Semi Program manager, explained that Tesla is using one of the motors for cruising speed geared toward peak efficiency at highway speeds and the two other motors are used for torque when accelerating in order to create a smooth driving experience never seen in a class 8 truck before. To prove the capacity, Tesla shared a very impressive video of a Tesla Semi loaded at 82,000 lb. passing a diesel truck at 6% incline on the Donner Pass as if it's nothing:
Tesla promised a range of 500 miles with a full load five years ago, and it delivered on the promise. Tesla shared data on a 500-mile trip with a full load of just under 82,000 lb. total with the tractor. It started out in the Bay Area with a 97% state of charge and ended up in San Diego with still 4% charge. Tesla reiterated that it can achieve a less-than-2 kWh-per-mile efficiency, which means that trucking companies can achieve up to $70,000 in fuel savings per year depending on their cost of electricity. Once the battery pack is depleted after 500 miles or so, you can expect blazing-fast charging thanks to the new 1-megawatt charging technology developed by Tesla. The automaker also said it will make it to the Cybertruck. In an updated article, Electrek's Fred Lambert says Musk confirmed Tesla Semi's efficiency at 1.7 kWh per mile, "which means it has a roughly 900 kWh battery pack."
Tesla didn't reveal the weight of the actual truck or the price. "In 2017, Tesla said the trucks would be $150,000, $180,000, and $200,000, depending on the model, but those prices are expected to have changed over the last five years," reports Lambert.
In terms of the technology powering the truck, things have changed since the original prototypes, but not in any major ways. Tesla is now using a tri-motor drivetrain that is basically the same as in the Model S and Model X Plaid. Dan Priestley, Tesla Semi Program manager, explained that Tesla is using one of the motors for cruising speed geared toward peak efficiency at highway speeds and the two other motors are used for torque when accelerating in order to create a smooth driving experience never seen in a class 8 truck before. To prove the capacity, Tesla shared a very impressive video of a Tesla Semi loaded at 82,000 lb. passing a diesel truck at 6% incline on the Donner Pass as if it's nothing:
Tesla promised a range of 500 miles with a full load five years ago, and it delivered on the promise. Tesla shared data on a 500-mile trip with a full load of just under 82,000 lb. total with the tractor. It started out in the Bay Area with a 97% state of charge and ended up in San Diego with still 4% charge. Tesla reiterated that it can achieve a less-than-2 kWh-per-mile efficiency, which means that trucking companies can achieve up to $70,000 in fuel savings per year depending on their cost of electricity. Once the battery pack is depleted after 500 miles or so, you can expect blazing-fast charging thanks to the new 1-megawatt charging technology developed by Tesla. The automaker also said it will make it to the Cybertruck. In an updated article, Electrek's Fred Lambert says Musk confirmed Tesla Semi's efficiency at 1.7 kWh per mile, "which means it has a roughly 900 kWh battery pack."
Tesla didn't reveal the weight of the actual truck or the price. "In 2017, Tesla said the trucks would be $150,000, $180,000, and $200,000, depending on the model, but those prices are expected to have changed over the last five years," reports Lambert.
Donner Party (Score:4, Funny)
That Donner Pass is dangerous, I hope they had multiple drivers in the vehicle in case they got stranded without food.
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The tail end of the presentation mentioned something about selling fleet packages first -- truck, megacharger [electrek.co], and megapack [tesla.com] or two.
Drawing that much power could seriously spike the grid, so smoothing it with supporting infrastructure makes sense, and that would mean fleet customers with fixed endpoints.
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1MW is only 3x350kW chargers, and lots of locations have more than that. Which is to say, it's not that big of a deal and there is plenty of experience with loads of that magnitude.
Re:Donner Party (Score:5, Interesting)
Yep. And more to the point, demand from EVs is never - even if governments subsidize EVs to the point of being free - going to grow faster than grid operators can build out capacity. And grid operators *love* EVs because they're predictable loads that do most of their charging at night (and have the potential for smart charging as well); it lets them use their existing infrastructure more efficiently (more sales with comparatively little capital expenditure). Which either means more profit, greater reliability, or lower prices, depending on their market is. Operators have always suffered from idle generation capacity from which they can't sell power during off-peak hours, and it's only been a growing problem as wind power has been increasing (you can't just tell the wind to wait until people wake up).
Now, while on the balance EVs are a strong net positive, of the two types of EV charging, they obviously like nighttime slow charging more than daytime fast charging. On the other hand, grids adore *buffered* fast charging (e.g. a megapack at the charging station), which converts these uneven spiky peak loads into steady, predictable, commonly off-peak loads.
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It does make me wonder how many of these 1MW chargers will actually be bought. After a 500 mile trip, is there going to be much demand for a 1 hour turn-around? That said I guess the charge curve will be like other Teslas, so it will probably be more like 2 hours to fully charge from 10%, but still... I'd expect most customers to get slower chargers, maybe 150kW. Perhaps a one or two 1MW chargers for those rare occasions.
Payload? payload? (Score:5, Interesting)
Tesla only mentioned a total weight of 82,000 lb. (electric trucks are allowed an extra 2,000 lb.) during the event, but it never confirmed the weight of the Tesla Semi or load capacity. It would be important information to have.
It is still not disclosing the actual payload. Must be less than 50,000 lb else they will be shouting from the roof tops. Typical 85,000 lb max, 10,000 lb for trailer, 15,000 lb for day cab, 25,000 lb for night cab. So diesel truck payload is between 50,000 to 60,000.
Still for most parcel carriers, they are not limited by weight but by volume. For them it is just a question of cost per mile. Include fuel/energy cost, amortization of capital and maintenance.
Tesla claims a savings of 70,000 $ a year. May be 50K relalistically. Additional cost over diesel truck is 100K ? two year break even period, that would be amazing.
It will attack diesel truck in both long haul and city/delivery use case. With lower noise, it might even get night ops going. Stop and go traffic is where it is going to make tons of money. For city trucks the battery cost would be lower, and thus break even would be shorter.
Lets see what the real pay load is.
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Used, late-model trucks go for ~150K [kenworthsalesco.com]. So, I don't know why you think a $150-200k Tesla Semi costs 100k more. ?
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Earlier this fall priced out a brand new Kenworth T680 day cab. I believe it was north of $250k CAD with delivery maybe in a 12-18 months.
Re:Payload? payload? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but that's CAD... what's that in USD, like $10? ;)
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: )
( 186 000 $ )
Re:Payload? payload? (Score:4, Funny)
PepsiCo doesn't deliver parcels though, they are basically hauling water most of the time.
Or air :-)
The presentation also mentioned Frito-Lay, which is one of their subsidiaries.
Re: Payload? payload? (Score:2)
I would be shocked if they would sell this for less than 350k per truck at current Tesla margin levels.
What they COULD sell the truck for vs what they would sell it for are two different things.
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A battery pack of that size is probably in the ballpark of ~$90k. Maybe less if they benefit from pack scale. The motors are a few $K each. That leaves them ~$100k for everything else and profit. They don't have to build an engine, they don't need a massive transmission, they don't need a pollution control / exhaust system, they have a small intake, they don't need as much to deal with brake wear/overheating, they don't need an APU, and on and on and on.
That said, they have a perfect excuse (inflation) to
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$50K fuel savings per year is equivalent to the cost of getting rid of the driver. Not quite as good as self driving trucks but in dollar value is equivalent which is what the CFO probably cares about.
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Re: Payload? payload? (Score:2)
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Trucks can be anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 lbs alone depending on the number of axles, sleeper, etc, and a class 8 box trailer can be about 10,000 lbs empty. There are height, length, and weight limits.
The truck I drive on occasion is a GVW of 63.5 metric tonnes, with a net load of 45 tonnes, so my truck and trailers weigh 18.5 tonnes together (double trailer configuration). Trailers are about as light as they can possibly be.
For my needs an electric semi that could haul 63.5 (140,000 lbs) for several h
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10,000 Lbs seems like a lot of weight for a bed in the back?
A 53’ trailer, not a flat bed, weighs about 10,000 lbs [jdpower.com] as it has to strong enough to hold about 50,000 lbs of cargo.
Is there a Govt. safety regulation that limits cubic ft like there is that limits weight?
Yes, max length, height, and width of a trailer is regulated.
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Can someone explain to me why people are counting the weight of the trailer against Tesla, as though that doesn't apply to every single Semi out there?
Tesla has long been clear that the vehicle will be similar weight to existing Class 8 trucks. And the US government gives electric semis and extra 2t allowance anyway to account for any weight increases.
Battery packs are not just "extra weight" (in this case, ~4t between pack and motors), and nor do they displace just the engine. They displace or simplify/l
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Can someone explain to me why people are counting the weight of the trailer against Tesla, as though that doesn't apply to every single Semi out there?
Who said anything to the like? The OP said that the US has a MAX of 85,000 lbs for total weight for a semi-tractor, trailer, and cargo. Since Tesla has not disclosed the weight of their semi-tractor, the computation is that semi-tractor and cargo cannot exceed 75,000 lbs. However as the OP pointed out, the weight of the cargo in many cases is not the limiting factor as the the volume. The volume in terms of height, width, and length are regulated so it is not like Tesla can put out a 200 foot long, 40 foot
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Re:Payload? payload? (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, I also heart a point that having to plan trips around "where can I charge this thing" was really annoying, because it added a significant point of worry to things like holiday trips to Lapland. Whereas for an ICE powered car, you just toss a couple of jerrycans of fuel in the back just in case if you are really going far north for a couple of weeks with no plans of popping back to civilization for food and fuel and you're good.
In every single discussion thread, there's inevitably one of these... Someone who thinks EVs will never be viable until they can handle the use case of driving a cannonball run for 8 hours into some unelectrified shack in the middle of nowhere, with a truck bed full of supplies, and be ready to drive back to civilization after the weekend.
By all means, just buy that rusty old pickup truck you really want and be done with it. The vast majority of society really does not need to be held back from progress to support the occasional hunting cabin trip in flyover country.
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Then they can buy a wood stove thermoelectric generator.
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In every single discussion thread, there's inevitably one of these
I kind of wonder what vehicle they actually own. They appear to believe that your daily driver must also be usable for every possible task one might encounter. Something like a hybrid between a bus and a lorry.
What I think they actually mean is they want a big, noisy, cool-looking, gas guzzling truck, but know deep down something's wrong but don't want to be made to feel bad by seeing others making different decisions.
They will continue to sh
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Electric motors are so suitable for traction, so efficient over a wide range of RPM, you get neck-whiplash acceleration for free essentially
Cost of making a 50 gallon tank instead of a 40 gallon tank is so cheap they get range for free essentially
100 years of gasoline deliver infrastructure is helping them with refueling time.
But, only gas stations can sell gasoline. Anyone with a wall outlet can sell charge to EV. Several million charge locatio
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These vehicles cost a lot of money and it's probably the biggest financial sacrifice any of us will make.
Yes, lots of people make irrational purchasing decisions with respect to cars.
I don't see the problem with expecting to buy something this expensive to fulfil every need I will ever have.
It won't. That's the point. If you're mostly driving yourself around in a duallie big ass-truck, then you're burning money on fuel, unless "wasting money" is a need. If you have a pickup truck, it's not suitable for movi
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No I can't take an EV on a long trip, not as they are today.
Yes you can, you just need to plan your journey.
If I take an ICE to be at an airport in 3 hours, I know as long as my vehicle is in reasonably good shape I can leave 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead of time and I will make it. If I have an EV, when do I leave?
That's not a long trip. Even if you somehow manage to hit the maximum allowed speed limit anywhere in the US continuously for 3 hours, you still wouldn't exceed the range of many electric cars on
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With the loss of economy of scale, your fuel will cost upwards of 20 $/gallon. Number of gas stations will go down by a factor of 5.
10 years from now, it will be the gas/diesel users who would need better route planner to map their refueling stations and make lengthy weekly trips to fill the ta
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Already gas stations are not making money selling gas, they rely on convenience stores for profit and gas is just a traffic generator. They are scaling back investments in new oil pipelines, new refineries, new tanker cars, new tanker ships. They are deferring maintenance. Deferred maintenance will lead to sudden and unexpected local shortages. Oil retailers will engage in price-gouging.
The shoe will be on the other foot. Gas vehicle
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They appear to believe that your daily driver must also be usable for every possible task one might encounter. Something like a hybrid between a bus and a lorry.
Yes, they certainly push this to an extreme, and that's the irritating part. Especially since not even a normal ICE car would cover all those uses.
However, there is a bit of a balancing act, and a certain degree of "cover all uses" is reasonable. Remember, before Tesla came along and had the guts to make an EV that looked like a real car with a reasonable amount of range (and for some time after), nearly every other EV out there looked like a tiny econobox that could only go like 80 miles. You then had p
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I'm driving in the city with a plug-in hybrid with 33 miles electric range, and I almost never use any gas. Therefore an 80 mile range is absolute sufficient for my city use.
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Not all can manage with 33 mile electric range. Some can, And among those who can, most dont know they can.
Even for you, did you know 33 miles are enough before you bought it? Would you have bought a 33 mile electric car without an ICEV backup on board? For EV to get to substantial marketshare in cold weather regions you need 150 miles. For temperate climate the number is closer to 100 miles.
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No of course I would not have bought a 33 mile range electric car. But I would have bought an 80 mile range electric car. Stop being such an idiot you really are not helping your cause.
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You mean to tell me you have never seen dually F-350 supercab parked in front of an office complex, because I sure have.
Some people do buy one vehicle and use it for every possible purpose even if it would be easier/cheaper/better to have multiple vehicles.
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ahh defensiveness!
If you're not angry about electric cars and electric car owners why are you so defensive about me taking the piss out of those angry people?
And if you're the kind of person who's really angry about electric cars, your aren't buying a compact Hyundai.
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Re:Payload? payload? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you start with "who all can NOT use this product?" you will remain in the sidelines, never developing a product. How many people cant use a mototcycle? How many people would not drink green tea? How many people would not eat lab grown meat? But these products exist because the developers are asking, "how many people CAN use this product? Is it big enough to justify my capital investment?"
The issue with EV is not range, not recharging time. Its the cost. Battery prices had been falling 15% a year till 2019. It is steady now, because of increased demand. New capacity is coming on line, it will regress to the mean and EV will match or beat ICEV in initial price, in C segment in 2026-27 time frame. C segment is your bread and butter accord, camry, level cars.
On the gasoline front, the gasoline infrastructure is very very expensive. The fixed cost of delivering gas is $1.50 to $1.75 a gallon. Even if Saudi Arabia gives the crude away for free you would pay 2$ at the pump. At current levels of volume and economy of scale. If gasoline consumption falls by 10% minimum gas price goes to $2.20. City driving accounts for 80% of gasoline consumption. I estimate gasoline will reach 5$ a gallon when the crude is priced at 0$/barrel, in 5 to 10 years.
Still want to bet on ICEV, or buy an expensive ICEV in 2027? or buy a gas station franchise? Be my guest, its your money, spend/invest it anyway you like.
A few things left out (Score:4, Interesting)
However, Musk failed to clarify key details like how much the Semis can haul, how much they will cost, and when Tesla will start producing hundreds of Semis for companies that pre-ordered them as early as 2017. Analysts told Reuters that they were especially disappointed that Tesla did not disclose the weight of an unloaded Semi, which would have helped them calculate efficiency on the road.
....
Reuters reported that Tesla would use the Semi to transport parts between its Nevada and California plants. In test runs, Tesla completed a 500-mile haul of 81,000 pounds (a total that includes the truck's weight and cargo), but that didn’t impress everyone gathered. Oliver Dixon, a senior analyst at the consultancy firm Guidehouse, told Reuters the truck is “not very impressive” and still could not be considered a “definitive proof of concept" without key details that Tesla failed to share during its event.
Five years ago, when Tesla offered the world its first look at the Semiin 2017,Pepsi promptly ordered 100 trucks. It was expected that the trucks would be hauling loads for companies like Pepsi, United Parcel Service, and Walmart by 2019. But production of the heavy-duty truck became stalled while competitors beat Tesla to market with rival fully electric Class 8 vehicles. Before this week, the only glimpse that the public got suggesting that the Semi could soon be hitting roads was a prototype spotted in 2018.
This line from CNBC sums it up best: [cnbc.com]
Shares in Elon Musk’s auto business closed flat ahead of the event, at $194.70, and did not move appreciably in after-hours trading.
Re: A few things left out (Score:2)
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I think you need to talk to the poster of the "4% range" post, who isn't impressed the loaded Tesla semi can blow past the conventional truck on a 6% incline, which is a pretty impressive. As impressive as a kia would be doing 180 miles per hour blowing by a hemi that's huffing and puffing uphill.
It's ok, this is slashdot, it's ok to post about things you don't know about. But so someone learns: An electric motor is much more powerful and much smaller than gas/diesel engines. So Tesla was smart enough to de
Re: A few things left out (Score:2)
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It's ok, this is slashdot, it's ok to post about things you don't know about.
That's handy, because you definitely don't get the point of the comparison.
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> My concern that he is using consumer parts in a commercial vehicle.
What parts would those be? When the article says "basically the same as in the Model S and Model X Plaid" they are likely referring motor construction which includes a carbon-fiber wrapped rotor because they rev the things to the fucking moon to get speed out of a fixed low gear ration they need for the torque.
And since those motors were developed for the semi, it's more accurate to say that they are using commercial grade parts in a co
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Use it as a gas truck (Score:4, Insightful)
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The fuel trucks probably have short enough routes that it could work. (Presumably long-haul is what the pipelines are for.) If the industry was really trying to decarbonize, they would do this kind of thing voluntarily, but we know they won't do it until they get government subsidies. That's the main thing that sells Teslas.
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Think I'd ratther have a Kenworth T680E (Score:5, Interesting)
Trucks have always been very modular in north America. You can get just about any engine/transmission/axle configuration you want. So it makes sense that when it comes to electric semis, the incumbents (Kenworth, Peterbilt, Freightliner, International, Volvo, etc) actually far better placed to make electric trucks than Tesla is. And they have. You can order electric trucks right now (delivery in a year or more like every other brand new truck even diesel).
I'm really not sure who Tesla's market is, really, other than PepsiCo for the cult factor. The market for electric semis, especially class 8, really isn't that big and fleet buyers are the likely short-term market. Independent guys (who make up the majority of long-haul trucking) working for trucking companies are not likely to find electric practical just yet. I don't see Tesla ever recouping the cost of making this truck. Whereas Freightliner, Kenworth, etc can recoup it quite a bit faster, since they aren't designing some kind of one-of-a-kind integrated unit. Maybe they can't get quite the range of Tesla, but that will improve with time (plus they are available now).
Definitely if I want an electric truck (and I will in the future), it's going to be a well-known, established company that is going to be here in 10 or 20 years, which I cannot say about Tesla's truck division.
Even electric trucks have to be fully safetied every year, and they all require maintenance checking oil levels in the diffs, looking for leaks, making sure the lights all work, etc. I can take a Kenworth T680E to my normal mechanic and with the exception of the the electric drive train itself and batteries, he can work on it like any other truck, even of any other brand. Tesla, who knows!? It would be a very expensive gamble for an independent driver.
Re:Think I'd ratther have a Kenworth T680E (Score:5, Interesting)
It'll be used like Pepsi, Coke, local dairy suppliers and the like. A regional warehouse that can have the have chargers installed with guys on more or less fixed delivery routes every day. The trucks are left at the warehouse when not in use for charging. A friend on our racing team works for one of the large dairy suppliers. He starts at like 3am and delivers milk, ice cream, and cheese for 10 hours a day to local markets, then he returns the truck and goes home. Perfect application for an electric truck.
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Re:Think I'd ratther have a Kenworth T680E (Score:4, Insightful)
So looking up the T680E, it apparently has an operating range of 150 miles and takes 3.3 hours to recharge, only mentioning the charging standards use for fast-charging cars.
If Tesla claimed those specs for their semi, everyone would be laughing them out of the room. Unless I'm missing something.
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If Tesla claimed those specs for their semi, everyone would be laughing them out of the room. Unless I'm missing something.
By "everyone" you mean the peanut gallery of gas guzzling rustbucket pickup truck owners who are kind of salty that their choice of vehicle sometimes makes them think about their life choices when they see other people's vehicles.
Like, there are some people here who really despise the concept of electric vehicles beyond all rationality and of course they'll laugh. They'd laugh at a thou
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That's a very usable range and charge time for some applications, particularly in a city. Definitely not for long-haul. Kenworth knows and has a (small) market already. Tesla is trying to create one. Will be interesting to see where it goes.
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If Tesla claimed those specs for their semi, everyone would be laughing them out of the room. Unless I'm missing something.
Long haul, yes. Short haul, no, as those trucks return to the depot every day where they can be charged overnight.
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The difference here is Tesla sells infrastructure along with their vehicles. They can bundle the charging stations, battery storage, and solar arrays. The most compelling thing about Tesla is not necessarily their cars, it's their huge network of superchargers. Kenwood and Freightliner can't do that. They have to cobble together their infrastructure from 3rd parties.
And while diesel isn't going anywhere anytime soon, decoupling your operating costs from the price of diesel really can't be understated. That
Yawn. (Score:2)
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Slashdot is the perfect petri dish to grow an Elon cult-culture because space, and selfishness.
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The word I'm picking up from normies outside of the internet is that people are finally getting tired of hearing about him. The social media site he's taken over has gotten no less political, no more enjoyable. Unlike his other ventures, half the population interacts directly with Twitter. They can see this playing out. It's becoming obvious even to the layman that there's little substance beneath the bluster, and the style is kind of played out and not that edgy anymore.
I've never had a normie at a church
bullshit until proved otherwise (Score:2)
Without useful data on the cargo load of the truck, this is a meaningless stunt.
Trucking equivalent of the Pony Express (Score:2)
I can easily see that range won't be a huge issue for tractor trailer trucks because once you've reached the range limit, you just swap it out for a fully charged one in a few minutes and you're back on the road. For any other type of vehicle, not being able tot get back on the road in 5 minutes is always going to be a deal-breaker for anyone who doesn't live in a city where their daily travel distances are less than 100 miles.
Of course, you still have the problem of crappy charging infrastructure which is
So let's be clear (Score:2)
Story critical of musk -> Buried
Story positive towards musk -> Front Page
Slashdot was never a news site, but now it's even less of one
Weight Limit ? (Score:2)
File it Under: Rich Man Beats Chest (Score:2)
Moputnatinous Roads (Score:2)
The savings in fuel and in maintenance on mountainous roads will be significant.
Funny fact: Diesels can air-brake, effectively blowing off their speed as heat by running the engine 'backwards.' Electrics can do the same, running their motors "backwards," but in this case, you call it a generator, which charges charges the battery from the braking action, rather than just producing heat. This is the same in all electrics, but in slowing freight (trucks and rail), where there is a lot of kinetic energy to dis
Some more figures would be nice (Score:2)
With total mass of 82,000lb, how much of that is payload? They say the truck is somewhere between 12,000 and 25,000lb, how does that compare to the trucks it competes against?
A lot of places tax trucks per km/mile based on the mass of the vehicle with payload. The heavier the truck, the more tax per payload.
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> stopping every 500ish miles will eat into efficiency substantially
Even if you are cruising at a constant 70mph, 500 miles is over 7 hours of continuous driving. Drivers must take a minimum 30 minute break after 8 consecutive hours of driving. And after that break they can only drive 3 more hours before having to stop for the night (minimum 10 hours of not driving).
I suspect the 500 mile range was arrived at to be as far as the truck is allowed to be driven without a break... does this thing have a slee
Re:Cringe inducing at 4% range left. (Score:5, Interesting)
The level of regulatory capture in the trucking industry is insane.
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> Those rules are routinely broken
That may be the case, but it feels irrelevant since no manufacturer is obligated to facilitate breaking the law.
Designing a vehicle that satisfies the typical, legal use case seems reasonable to me, even if the typical user flouts the law. *shrug*
=Smidge=
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Even if you are cruising at a constant 70mph, 500 miles is over 7 hours of continuous driving. Drivers must take a minimum 30 minute break after 8 consecutive hours of driving. And after that break they can only drive 3 more hours before having to stop for the night (minimum 10 hours of not driving).
Team driving is a thing too. One sleeps in the back while the other drives.
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You're saying that 500 miles wasn't calculated on the freshest batteries in perfect weather? This will be the case in any weather, any driving conditions, until the truck is 20 years old?
While they are best case scenarios numbers, I believe that batteries even on an electric vehicle can be changed out.
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I'm saying 500 miles was probably the target because that's how far a single driver can actually drive.
They could have put less battery in for say, 300 miles, and increased cargo capacity accordingly, but then drivers would be forced to make extra stops.
They could have put more battery in and gotten 700 miles, but the incremental utility and additional cost, on top of reduced cargo capacity, might not have made sense.
Basically I'm saying that 500 miles being the rated range and also being roughly how far yo
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Re:Cringe inducing at 4% range left. (Score:4, Funny)
Having fast acceleration doesn't matter at all if it takes forever to recharge from using it.
Oh come on, who doesn't want a semi with ludicrous mode? :-)
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I prefer a real ludicrous mode, not a semi-ludicrous mode.
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Why would the recharging need to be deployed nationwide when the real users of *these* trucks will be parking them back every single night at the exact same location (their warehouse or whatever). Where they're going to sit idle for like 12-16 hours, and the owners may not bother getting a megacharger (ie, settling for like 100 amp level 2 charging or something) for quite a while. Drivers won't be waiting around to recharge after the 500 miles, because they've already driven all their legal hours for the da
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Most posts against the Tesla truck are like if someone was hating the Boeing 707 when it came out, because it's obviously not going to be able to make it all the way to the moon, clearly will crash and be destroyed long before it can fly nonstop over the south pole, and clearly has no room for the 800 passengers that it should be able to carry. Therefore it's no use whatsoever, who are these idiots who are buying or selling this thing?
Sort of like how most general EV discussion threads always have that one detractor swearing that EVs will never be viable for anyone because they can't handle their regular 500mi weekend trip to an unelectrified hunting shack in the middle of nowhere.
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Long haul diesel trucks don't have just one driver. They're on the road 24/7 unless they're being loaded or undergoing scheduled maintenance.
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There are almost as many cars in USA as there are people, including those who can't drive, like children.
A significant number of families have multiple vehicles and the means to charge them.
A significant number of those can also do their commuting for the week on a single charge, leaving the whole weekend to recharge it, with two says worth of solar and off peak power. You can also top it up daily with cheap power over night when grid demand is low.
Using an EV to commute to work also keeps the emissions out