Tesla's battery day

Jolteon

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The class 6 we have on order has two variants for battery size that predict 100 miles of range for the standard battery or 200 miles for the larger unit. It's really just barely adequate for a work truck.

I work for a lighting company with branches in California and Arizona. We have about 175 trucks in our fleet. We would buy the Tesla semi immediately if it were available. I do not prefer Tesla for my personal vehicle but for commercial use they could be very attractive. Just having our company logo on the side of a Tesla medium or heavy duty truck would do wonders for our marketing image. Being a lighting company that provides energy savings solutions and rolling up to the customer's property with a Tesla electric trucks would make our customers very happy.

Right now we have to be careful that we don't idle the diesel engines too long or leak fluid all over their plaza etc. An electric truck minimizes those issues quite a bit.
I am so hopeful for the future of electric trucking. That's an industry above all else where total lifetime cost of ownership will make decisions - and no maintenance, no DEF, no oil changes, no idling and wasting fuel, etc. will (I think) easily justify the upfront capital cost.

I really see trucking getting into BEVs faster than passenger cars - once the products are available for sale.
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SnBGC

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I am so hopeful for the future of electric trucking. That's an industry above all else where total lifetime cost of ownership will make decisions - and no maintenance, no DEF, no oil changes, no idling and wasting fuel, etc. will (I think) easily justify the upfront capital cost.

I really see trucking getting into BEVs faster than passenger cars - once the products are available for sale.
I hope so too. That would a very big impact on our environment. As crazy as it sounds....I think fuel cell might work better for trucking and aircraft because they would be better able to control the fueling resources. Plus I think it would have a lower power to weight ratio which is important in both industries. However I do think BEV will beat them to market so I guess we will see what wins out. Either solution is better than what we are doing now IMO.
 

dbsb3233

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I really see trucking getting into BEVs faster than passenger cars - once the products are available for sale.
How many 100's of kW's of battery is that though? And how much range, and how long to charge?

The economics may not work if it has to be out of service more that it's in.
 

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How many 100's of kW's of battery is that though? And how much range, and how long to charge?

The economics may not work if it has to be out of service more that it's in.
Yeah it works more for the local UPS/Fedex delivery guy than it does for the long-haul over the road trucking.
 

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How many 100's of kW's of battery is that though? And how much range, and how long to charge?

The economics may not work if it has to be out of service more that it's in.
That's a good question. I would suggest though that it might be that with mandatory limits to daily driving hours (which the US has and I assume other places do), and with say 350KW DCFC at truck stops, it could work out. Build a crap load of them, and the drivers can do their mandatory downtime while charging.

There's the charging network coming up again as a potential blocker of course.
 


dbsb3233

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Doubt that solar idea would ever work. The trailer and truck need to stay interchangeable. The trucks haul different trailers all the time. It would surely be cost prohibitive to put solar on trailers that could be hauled by many (often diesel) trucks.

No idea what the kind of miles/kWh a 40 ton tractor-trailer gets at highway speeds, but it's gotta be tiny. 0.5? 0.3? A CDL driver can drive up to 14 hours/day. That can easily be 500+ miles. Could be 1000 kWh. Even if they could stuff that much battery in the truck, charging it in 10 hours is gonna take an awfully impressive charge curve with little tapering.
 

JCHLi

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For what it's worth regarding battery trucking. The Nikola refuse lists a 750kWh battery and a 150 mile range. Granted, it is designed for picking up trash, so it's mostly stop and go.

Still it gives an idea in the crazy amount of energy needed.
 

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