I've noticed there is a common theme to arguments against electrification: that they assume it's necessary for an electric vehicle needs to match all the capabilities of a fossil fuel equivalent. i.e. trade offs are not possible.
Why can't the truck just have shorter range (and thus more cargo capacity) and charge more regularly?
If there was proper carbon taxing, the cost of the driver waiting around for charging would be mitigated by the savings made from avoiding carbon tax.
Similarly with electric cars, I'm happy to stop on a very long trip for charging if it means my environmental impact is significantly lower.
I'm assuming the maths in the video is correct. The key figure seems to be that you need 20kg of batteries to achieve the range of 1kg of petrol. Which sounds plausible, but I'm no expert.
This seems inevitable in the short term. But then, the trade-offs tilt less in favour of electrification. For example, shorter ranges likely means more trucks, and these trucks will likely be heavier and do more damage to roads.
In the US, "Approximately 50 percent of the weight and 37 percent of the value of goods were moved less than 100 miles between origin and destination in 2015" according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics [0]. This is well within the range of the Tesla Semi. I'm not sure the capacity of the Tesla Semi, though.
[0] https://www.bts.dot.gov/sites/bts.dot.gov/files/docs/FFF_201...
I'm thinking existing truck stops would have a better chance of working than the weigh stations. let's leave the government it, they are barely competent at weighing a truck. Some trucks might not see a weigh station for a week. Some stations are nothing more than a pull out on the side of the road.
This statement strikes me as ignorant even if we talk exclusively about Tesla. The idea that Elon hasn’t improved on existing designs across all of his current companies (or Paypal) borders on indefensible. Reusable and landable stage 1 boosters come to mind.
It's odd people bring up PayPal as a star on Elon's resume.
a) PayPal, especially in the early days, was near universally reviled. It was sort of what we were stuck with.
b) Elon became part of PayPal in a merger, and was later removed as CEO.
I think some of these people believe Elon is personally designing and engineering these things, so naturally it carries over.
Gwynne Shotwell doesn't get enough credit.
Here's the first big mistake I think he made in the video at 3:45. He pulls this "1 to 20" number out of no where to come up with a battery weight of 17t. But we know a 600kwh battery is 8000lbs.[0]
This article also mentions that the max legal payload is increased by 2000lbs for ev trucks... meaning the payload is going to be very close to a gas truck.
0. https://insideevs.com/news/525765/tesla-semi-payload-compara...
From your own source it says 600kwh will only go 300 miles. Trucks are too big to use the existing supercharger network so a new one will have to be built for the truck to get any substantial distance.
> I'll generally go with the industry experts. Tesla has presold hundreds of these trucks to walmart, fedex, etc.
Do you have details on the terms of these deals? Dollars to donuts these companies can opt out without penalty. This is just a mutual marketing scheme between Tesla trying to seem like an industry leader and these companies trying to seem green.
> [...] Tesla would need a 600 kWh to 1,000 kWh battery pack to produce the Semi’s 300-mile (483-km) and 500-mile (805-km) variants. Since a 600 kWh pack weighs about 8,000 pounds (3,629 kg), it would eat into payload as Class 8 trucks have a total weight capacity limit of 80,000 pounds (36,287 kg).
That would mean 6050kg for the 500 mile range. The video estimates it at 17t
I get the feeling you use this phrase to dismiss anything you don't like. Nothing about this video at all describes or relates to a conspiracy.
Most of the weight is likely going into the frame and structure of the tractor.
https://dieselsales.com/diesel-engine-and-transmission-weigh...
According to the video: The maximum capacity of a truck is 80,000 lbs or 36 metric tons. The average weight of a semi-tractor is 25,000 lbs or 11t, leaving 25t for fuel, trailer, and cargo. 300 gal of diesel at 7lbs/gal is 2100lbs or about 1t. A trailer is around 10t. That gives a cargo capacity of 14t. The difference between the Tesla and a typical semi is that the 1t of diesel is replaced by batteries, (according to the video) at a rate of 1lb to 20lb. As a result, the Tesla load capacity is small (or negative, according to my calcs here).
This is wrong.
I think the 1t of fuel is calculated as part of the 25t of semi tractor, rather than a separate weight. But that's a minor problem.
The big difference is that the range of a semi on 300g of diesel is about 1200 miles. The claimed range of the Tesla is a maximum of 500m. Therefore, the Tesla battery is comparable to 125g of diesel, or 875lbs, or about 1t. As a result, the Tesla should have about the same load capacity as a normal semi, just with 42% of the range.
On the other hand, that range is a problem. Truckers routinely complain about speed limits and limiters, because the difference between 55mph, say, and 70mph over a 10 hour (say) driving day is 150 miles. Drivers get paid by the mile, so that is some number of hundreds of dollars per day.
The Tesla's range of 500 miles per day (how long does it take to charge, compared to the driving hours schedule?) compared to the 600-700 miles per day of a typical semi is again some number of hundreds of dollars per day.
Does the Tesla have a hot-swappable battery pack? And how much does the Tesla tractor weigh? And why is this article flagged?
No idea why it was flagged I thought it was interesting.
I hope Tesla will release their numbers sometime soon.
"A semi-truck without a trailer weighs between 10,000 and 25,000 pounds, depending on the size." (https://www.tcsfuel.com/blog/truck-weight-classification/)
That's 10-11t.
Musk is well aware of this and has been very creative in earning many new and valuable EV patents. I expect these to serve him well in creating this pool.
Right now his cars are battery starved and he is unable to fill all his own needs, and others are also after lithium and related minerals - I expect lithium reserves will serve adequate, esp if other metal battery techs emerge - it is quite possible lithium will be surpassed by a new-tech battery?