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Tesla's Electric Semi Trucks Are Priced To Compete At $150,000 (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the pocket-change dept.

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.

8 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Between fuel and maintenance savings... by RhettLivingston · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Between fuel and maintenance savings... by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is from a NA perspective, but first problem, the average driving day is 10h-12hrs. That makes the vehicles already less then the average driving range. Some places allow up to 14hr days, you can even get waives for up to 16hrs/day which require 18hrs off after that single trip.. On top of that long hauling is usually a trip in one direction, so they need place to charge up. They don't exist at all right now. Even companies with massive fleets don't have places in their depots for this. Which is why "truck stops" are so common for fueling. Look at Schnider trucking for example or TST-Overland. The average range between two depots is usually 800 miles or more.

      What you should expect is to see a 2-phase system coming into existence, where the battery system is used during initial startup and getting to highway speed, and then used in creep/low gear areas.

      --
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    2. Re:Between fuel and maintenance savings... by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

      More to the point, US trucking regulations are:

        * A 14 hour window containing...
        * 11 hours of driving, with...
        * A 30 minute break no more than...
        * 8 hours since the last rest period

      30 minutes break at a megacharger adds 400 miles to a Semi (900 total). At the rated 60mph, that's 15 hours - far more than the maximum drivers are allowed to drive.

      Of course, those mileage figures are for 60mph. Speed doesn't affect freight vehicles as much as passenger vehicles (freight vehicles have a lower ratio of aero drag to rolling drag), but it's still significant. Likewise, at higher driving speeds, you burn through miles faster regardless. 70mph with a 30 minute charging stop should be nearly 11 hours driving exactly. For 80mph, you need two 30 minute charge periods to fill up the full 11 hours (but that still comes well under the 14 hour driving window).

      Truck speed limits in the US vary greatly. In higher speed limit states, trucks tend to significantly vary in speed, with more time-sensitive goods going faster, while goods where keeping fuel costs down matters more move slower. With electric, since the "fuel" is so much cheaper, you can expect faster driving to be the more economically optimal case (since it doesn't push drivers out of their legal driving windows).

      In Europe it's way too easy. It's just simply: 45 minutes break every 4 1/2 hours or less

      --
      We gotta go to a crappy town where I'm a hero.
    3. Re: Between fuel and maintenance savings... by swillden · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You're going to pay someone for sleeping in a truck?

      Obviously not. The driver who is sleeping isn't getting paid, the driver who is driving is getting paid. A lot of couples drive this way. They make almost as much as what they'd make if both of them were driving separate trucks, but without having to spend all of their time apart. It works very well for the truck owner (which is often the couple) because the truck is rolling nearly 24 hours per day, maximizing the return on capital investment.

      Of course, what would be an even better use of capital investment is a couple shift-driving the lead truck of a "train", with the following vehicles self-driving. But mega-charging a train could be tricky, and time-consuming. Plus, rolling 24 hours per day will require more capacity than Tesla is putting in the trucks, even with megacharging. The obvious answer is: put batteries in the trailers.

      I mentioned this to my brother (who drives trucks, medium-haul -- for a company that has already ordered several Tesla Semis) yesterday, and he pointed out that they don't even have to give up cargo space to do that. Some haulers have experimented with using the undercarriage area for additional cargo capacity. It has some significant advantages, in that it lowers the trailer's center of gravity (good on windy routes) and eliminates the need for an undercarriage fairing, but it's not much used because loading and unloading the undercarriage compartments is difficult. So... put batteries there. It adds weight, but doesn't consume cargo space.

      He also points out that his company's tractors stay in motion nearly 24x7, but the trailers spend a good chunk of each day in a depot getting loaded or unloaded. So, if the trailer batteries can be charged while that's going on, there's less need for the tractor to stop moving.

      Big batteries in tractors is probably necessary at the beginning, but I don't think it will be too long before the majority of the capacity moves out of the tractors and into the trailers, at least for long-haul routes.

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  2. RV+Solar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

  3. Re:Weight is a factor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nobody's saying a peep about how much this thing weighs compared to a common diesel.

    The diesel one will vary by 800 pounds depending on if the tank is full or empty. (Guess where those pounds end up, matter doesn't disappear.)

    Either way I would like to see a system set up where emissions are moved out from the cities.
    With semis you can move the cargo over to an EV without having to reload everything.
    Diesel semis could do the long transportation with few start/stops that it is good at and then hand it over to an EV semi at the city limit that does the last part to keep emissions away from where people live and avoid most of start/stop situations that diesels are so bad at.

  4. Re:Purchase price is one thing by vtcodger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nothing against EVs, but there's a lot of hyperbole out there. For a realistic appraisal of EV capability, let me recommend this article by UCSD physics professor Tom Murphy. https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/201... This is based on his persanal EV.

    Murphy's conclusion

    "I am not yet personally convinced that we will see an EV revolution. Gasoline price fluctuations are a short-term killer of long-term planning. Batteries still do, and likely always will, disappoint. I am learning similar lessons on the nickel-iron battery front. We may have to face the fact that gasoline has been the ultimate transportation fuel, and the economists’ picture of universal substitutability may not apply."

    That said. Batteries suck, but they are improving -- albeit rather slowly.. If you believe Murphy (and i do), EVs are sort of OK today in a warm climate (Murphy lives in San Diego). My guess is there are applications -- and trucking might be one of them -- where EVs are competetive with/superior to fossil fuel vehicles and others where they aren't. My guess is that there are a few applications, fire engine's, jet aircraft, ... where the high energy density of hydrocarbon fuel will always be superior to electricity.

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    You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
  5. Re:charging stations by Charcharodon · · Score: 3, Interesting
    That usually isn't the case in large fleets. My time in UPS the truck was rarely hooked up to a trailer until it was almost ready to leave (full or scheduled time to depart). They'll probably have a charging yard with these things lined up like shopping carts. I can see that as a thing say at a Walmart where an inbound truck might hang around for its trailer to be unloaded. Though there are probably a couple sitting empty that they just swap out and hit the road. Big equipment can't make you money if they are sitting around waiting.

    The one thing everyone seems to be forgetting though is while autopilot may not be legal for use on the highway it is certainly legal for use on private property. Having the trucks move themselves around the yard and self parking will become a thing pretty quick. Truck enters the yard. The driver bounces. Truck parks itself in the loading bay. Ground crew disconnects the trailer. Takes itself over to the charge/maintenance yard. A charged truck hooks up to an outbound trailer. Ground crew makes the connection and hits the go button. Then it goes to the front waiting area to pick up its driver. Driver hops in and off it goes.