I found this “deep dive” into the Tesla Semi at The EV Universe pretty interesting. If the range and charging time are as claimed, a driver could cross the entire country from coast to coast on just six charges which would translate into a total of three hours of charging time. The price tag also appears to be roughly in line with ICE semis.
Lots of questions unanswered but looks good at first glance. I think if all the numbers pan out, and Musk is now a truth teller according to some people, it will be due to the constant advances in battery tech that have been taking place. The motors are fairly small so they have 3 which gives the trucks incredible power. If they were really driving across mountains and brakes never even got hot that also says a lot about the regen and maybe maintenance costs will be low. Finally, it is the first generation so one would expect continued improvement.
Charging stations will continue to be issue. Maybe it will be cost effective for companies to place their own if they are saving $60k/year in fuel costs.
Steve
1 MW charging requires a lot of infrastructure.
Its the equivalent of powering 800 homes; i.e. the charging station can’t be connected to the grid via a low or medium voltage line.
Today, an equivalent order of power is transported and stored at gas stations via trucks — taking advantage diesel and gasoline are both energy stores and energy sources — so it requires a lot less infrastructure.
Is being able to absorb 1MW of energy without being able to push 1MW of energy a gamechanger….?
Definitely interesting.
The charging stations could theoretically be more centralized at truck stops, potentially making them quicker to deploy and simplifying infrastructure upgrades than would be the case for EV cars. It’s certainly worth testing.
When I think about trucking and diesel fuel, much more comes to mind than interstate box trucks.
Sidedumpers hauling clay, doubles hauling rock, gravel, sand, lime from quarries, readymix concrete, eighty thousand pounds a load.
Huge buckets loading coal onto train cars propelled by diesel.
“charging stations could theoretically be more centralized at truck stopsâ€
I suppose that could be mandated but the mandate would be the game changer, not an electric truck.
There may be a place for them but companies who have have tried CNG have found access to that fuel more restrictive than good old reliable diesel fuel.
Ubiquitous and portable it’s hard to match.
Also, I understand Musk’s motivation but I don’t understand the fealty supporters of electric everything show.
Borders on religion.