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Tesla's Electric Semi Trucks Are Priced To Compete At $150,000 (theverge.com)
Last week, Tesla unveiled its new four-motor electric Semi but left out one key detail -- the price. "Now that's changed: the regular versions of the 300-mile and the 500-mile trucks will cost $150,000 and $180,000 each," reports The Verge. "There is also a 'Founders Series' which will cost $200,000 per truck." Tesla does note that the prices are "expected" leaving the company some wiggle room on the final pricing. From the report: If those prices and specs stick then Tesla has a potentially disruptive offering with Semi. Most long-haul diesel trucks are priced around $120,000 and cost tens of thousands of dollars to operate each year. Tesla claims its all-electric Semi will provide more than $200,000 in fuel savings alone over the lifespan of the truck.
I am waiting to see who the first person is to buy one and turn it into a massively overpowered SUV/truck thing for drag racing.
but what is the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)? Maybe the batteries are ridiculously expensive to maintain?
slashdot: A failed experiment.
wow. Between fuel and maintenance savings, the 500-mile range version will probably pay back double its cost! If that holds true, it will become a "must purchase to stay in business" type of item.
I have long thought it insane that the EV business did not start with RVs first, then big trucks and buses, then commercial vans, then SUVs, and finally cars. The torque and maintenance benefits of electric over diesel should allow it to dominate the big vehicle applications. Anyone who has passed an RV struggling through the Rockies or pulled over to the side with steam hissing out of the engine compartment should know that the big vehicles beg for this tech.
Semi trucks commonly cost more than $150,000. A boon for fleet owners will have batteries on site to swap, so the long charge time is a non issue. Not particularly good for long haul and owner operators.
Your transportation between towns could be almost free if you figure a 1-4kw array on the roof of the RV and a couple days at each stop to recharge.
Without fuel costs interfering you live as a roaming programmer or construction worker throughout your region with little fixed rent, especially if you have friends you can stop in with a few days in each area.
Tesla will be selling a tractor. A "semi" is the trailer part (as in semi-trailer).
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Great specs, ugly design. Looks like a neutered truck on stereoids, if that makes any sense.
I expect the first owners of the Tesla trucks will be fleet owners (Walmart for example). I will bet Tesla will have a mega-charger for the trucks. Then you mount the mega-charger on a boom arm so the truck is charged while the trailer is filled. If it takes an hour to charge the truck, it is no time lost against the loading time.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
so they are paying for themselves....
All commercial transportation vehicles, be they planes or trucks or vessels, must keep delivery cargo, or the cost of ownership would be tremendously stratospheric
Any plane, truck or vessel left idling does not generate revenues. Factor in the price paid for vehicles and maintenance, idling delivery vehicles generate negative revenue, which means, loss to the owner
I was a truck driver when I was young, and now I own a fleet of trucks. We optimize our truck schedule so that they can, ideally, deliver cargo batch 1 from point A to point B, and then, pick up cargo batch 2 from somewhere nearby point B, and deliver it to point C
The 'stoppages' involve are time for loading and unloading of cargo, and time for re-fueling, which normally takes much less than half of an hour
How long is the refueling time for electric truck?
Can electric truck be refueled within 30 minutes?
We spend less than one percent of the money on we spend on buying energy on energy technology research.
Why canâ(TM)t Tesla fund some research into radical new battery technology? Why arenâ(TM)t we putting more money into research on nuclear fusion?
Everyone speaks as if the infrastructure to fast charge a Tesla truck is available in all destinations when there are zero atm. Itâ(TM)s all well for a truck to leave fully charged and drive 500miles but where are they going to charge at the other end ?
Nobody's saying a peep about how much this thing weighs compared to a common diesel. I suspect this is good for thigns that cube out, but will not work for the large number of htings that gross out.
If the US had not decided that motor vehicles (cars and trucks) were the ONLY transport methods worth keeping, this discussion would be quite different. In Europe, where I live, we still have goods trains - that is trains that carry cargo. In the UK, some goods used to be carried by canal boats. But the UK, much like the US, has had for many years a conservative government that also looks at motor vehicles as a primary transport of goods. Conservatives are holding back free thought.
~_~ Not tonight, dear, I have a modem.
http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_02&newsID=2017-11-21-0001_photo
Nov. 21, Juche 106 (2017) Tuesday
Kim Jong Un Visits Sungri Motor Complex
Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un gave field guidance to the Sungri Motor Complex which successfully carried out the task for producing new style trucks given by the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) by displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.
He went round the Sungrisan Revolutionary Museum, the room dedicated to the history of the complex and the room preserving revolutionary historic mementoes.
He saw with deep emotion the photo of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il watching Sungri-58 truck produced by the Tokchon Automobile Plant, predecessor of the Sungri Motor Complex, on May 16, 1965. He said it was a photo of great significance and that the complex could make a great contribution to developing economy and strengthening defence capability of the country by producing a lot of various trucks under the wise and careful leadership of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
He watched new style five-ton trucks produced by the complex.
Watching with a bright smile on his face trucks standing in rows full in the broad park, he said they are trucks of Juche Korea manufactured by our workers with their own efforts and he is encouraged and satisfied to see the trucks, extending militant greetings to the workers of the complex.
He personally drove a truck to learn in detail about its performance and technical specifications.
He noted that the handsome and attractive five-ton trucks of our style are precious wealth produced in the Mallima era.
He added that the newly produced five-ton trucks proved that the hostile forces' desperate efforts to block the advance of the DPRK make the indomitable spirit of the Korean workers stronger and make them produce a great miracle startling the world.
After going round the assembling shop, precision processing shop, engine shop and other places, he gave the production assignment for next year and set forth important tasks facing the complex.
It is very important for the country to produce trucks by itself in order to develop economy and strengthen national power, he stated, calling for remodeling and updating the complex as required by the new century so that it can massively produce modern trucks.
He expressed belief that the officials and workers of the complex would successfully carry out the task advanced by the Party for remodeling and updating the complex and thus make a positive contribution to fully satisfying the daily-increasing need for transportation.
He had a photo session with them.
Accompanying him were O Su Yong and Pak Thae Song, vice-chairmen of the C.C., WPK, and Jo Yong Won, vice department director of the C.C., WPK.
Political News Team
There aren't enough charge stations for these tractors, and there never will be. They are grossly overpriced, because you can buy a used diesel tractor that has only about five times as many parts to break down for about a third the cost. It's all government subsidized and oil companies have never received any kind of subsidies, and the US isn't all tangled up in the Middle East and getting American soldiers killed because oil. That's just a lie. And Elon Musk is a loser and electric cars are for losers and solar power is for losers and it doesn't work when the sun isn't shining.
So this truck will fail just like everything else Musk has ever done. Guaranteed. 100%.
Does that about cover things?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Look! A squirrel!
- Tesla production lagging, massive problems... Look! I build a battery plant in Australia!
- Tesla can't even produce enough cars to fill the pre-orders... Look! We're going to revolutionize trucking!
- Tesla hasn't got enough materials to build car batteries - maybe because it all went to Australia... Look! Another squirrel!
How long are people going to be fooled?
There are so many reasons that Tesla electric semis are not going to go anywhere; it's not even worth listing them. Tesla will build a couple, to serve as additional distractions from their problems, but doing so will just make Tesla's production problems even worse...
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Electrified rail is still the most efficient way to move freight. US should be moving in that direction. Steel-on-steel = less friction. Power from overhead wires = no environmentally costly batteries. No charging/discharge losses either.
Far better than electric long-distance trucks would be getting the freight OFF the roads and onto rail. Ideally highly-automated. Use smaller electric engines to pull shorter trains that can be directly routes from points A to B using highly automated switching control software. Then load it onto electric trucks for the last 25-50 miles or so.
The other funny one you see a lot is the concept that Tesla hasn't the foggiest clue about semis. Never mind that the head of Tesla's Semi programme, Jerome Guillen, headed the Cascadia program at Daimler, and that the Semi unit is packed full of truck people, and the truck was engineered in close cooperation with major fleet operators (which is why they had orders already lined up at the launch event).
In 2006, Palm CEO Ed Colligan said of Apple and the rumoured 'Mac Phone':
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
This was why Apple doesn't show off concepts and prototypes: the competition doesn't know what they're working on, so when they do ship, you only see the final product. Similarly people don't know all of the prototypes that Tesla has tried and rejected.
they need to talk out the windows and pass paperwork at guard shacks. Many also prefer to look backwards from the window when reversing.
Probably the same place they started from, after they've made 10 roundtrips of 50 miles each. Or 250 roundtrips of 2 miles each.
Tesla should sell base truck bed to allow companies to come up with the E-RV. Would be awesome idea!!!!