Tesla Semi live reveal in 11 minutes (8PM PST 11/16)

[Jeff.Sloan]

Tesla.com in case you have nothing to do for the next couple hours :-)

[Imurphy907]

Wonder if it could be ordered in a single rear axle configuration with the other 2 drive motors up front. Would be bad ass to have a 4wd tractor from time to time.

Wish the website had more info

[palmer_md]

Great looking truck.  What I saw was interesting.  Still missing some details.  https://www.tesla.com/semi/

 

[GlennWest]

Read no mention of charging time and requirement

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

500 mile range doesn't do well for an OTR driver who doesn't get paid for waiting for the truck to recharge.  A driver can get 10 hours in and can have a couple hours to go at 500 miles.

[CrazyCooter]

I read that a 30 min charge with one of Tesla's "Solar-powered Megachargers" could add another 400 miles. This could make it possible for maybe a company with a dedicated route and infrastructure installed at strategically located terminals or truck stops but its a way off for an owner operator.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Or have a driver running west across North Dakota into a 30mph headwind.  That 500-mile range is now 200.... with NOWHERE to stop.

[beyerjf]

1. It's a cabover. I told ya

2.  There are many applications where this truck would be totally appropriate. Setting up "meet and turns" where the tractor would do the 500 miles and return to base without recharging is already a common supply chain strategy. Added benefit is no need for the sleeper, driver is home every night. Weight and complexity savings. Want to see how he handles a refrig trailer. Also would like to see the tare weight and cargo hauling capacity. 

3. The drawings are a little to spacey. This thing needs to hook to a regular semi trailer if it is going to be successful in the market. Walmart just ordered 15 of them. But they also ordered 4 Argosy's set up for high cube distribution and deep sixed them in about 2 years of experimentation. 

Tesla has a real chance to do well with this instead of cars. 

[Av8r3400]

1 hour ago, beyerjf said:

Tesla has a real chance to do well with this instead of cars. 

 

...just insert massive amounts of tax money.

[Lou Schneider]

1) How many acres of solar panels will be required to cover the power demand of a MegaCharger?

2) So far electric vehicles are getting a free ride on road taxes collected at the pump.  I'm sure that will end soon, especially now that electricity will be powering large, road pounding vehicles.  Let's see Tesla cover those costs at the promised 7 cents per KWh.

[markandkim]

9 hours ago, Av8r3400 said:

 

...just insert massive amounts of tax money.

Yea, 90%. I hope we soon cut them off. Such a waste of tax payers money. They make people believe that charging is free, when efficiency is <15%. Power has to be produced, stored and then transferred. Coal is still the cheapest source.  So I've heard them referred to as coal fired vehicles. Not so far fetched, huh?

Here in RI, they put free charging stations around the state. Who's paying for that?

[rickeieio]

6 hours ago, Lou Schneider said:

At 139,000 BTUs per gallon of diesel, and 3912 BTUs per KwH ,

Only about 35% of the btu's in a gallon of fuel actually go to move the vehicle.  The rest goes out the exhaust, radiator, etc.  That said, there's a lot of wasted energy in electric too.  It all makes a fair comparison difficult.

In my eyes, it's an interesting concept, but it will be a long time until it actually works.  So many things need to be put into place.  For instance, say a transport company buys several of these and uses them as Jeff suggested above.  Seems pretty practical, until they come home to roost and it's time to plug in the chargers.  Don't say solar, because it's dark out, or cloudy, or ......  How big a service will they need to run a dozen chargers?  Will the lines feeding that area support the additional load?

I read a paper where it did the math on the load to the "grid" if 10% of the households bought a Chevy Volt.  Today's grid won't handle it.

[hone eagle]

from another web site 

500 mile version( 1000kwh) battery pack weighs #10,000 

cost $180,000 (teslas cost not yours)

mega charger draws 1600kw - imagine a truck stop worth of them.

couple of mega carriers have announced "we'll take 4", peanuts in their publisity budget.

[noteven]

Fleet truck buyer: "What is the 0 to 60 time?"

[rickeieio]

45 minutes ago, noteven said:

Fleet truck buyer: "What is the 0 to 60 time?"

So, whatcha save in fuel, you spend on tires?

[noteven]

...

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

As we are approaching where the highways are almost solid trucks, maybe we need to rethink moving stuff across the country.  If we got serious, we could make the railroad system work better.  First new track routing that fits the current distribution patterns.  We can add more lanes to the Interstates or add tracks along side.

Even using diesel fuel, the ton miles per gallon of a railroad engine really exceeds what trucks can do.  We could go back to electrification if that is the future style of energy.

By standardizing on inter-modal shipping containers, train could do the long haul and trucks do the short range delivery.

A big rethink to distribution could come up with a great infrastructure program.  But alas, we don't think big, and we nickle and dime solutions with little improvement.

 

 

[noteven]

...

[Yarome]

8 hours ago, Lou Schneider said:

1) How many acres of solar panels will be required to cover the power demand of a MegaCharger?

Not as bad as you might think. 1 MegaCharger could keep 1 semi running 400 miles a day every day of the month (providing they start and stop in solar zone 1 (6hrs solar production)) with only 1434 310watt panels. Edge to edge... an acre can hold a little over 2000 310watt panels so there's PLENTY of room to spare!!

1 MegaCharger running at half capacity (24 rigs/day) that's still only ~22 acres of panels. 4 MC's running at half capacity at a single station... still only takes ~44 acres. You could even put in walkway aisles every two rows and still only be talking ~55 acres.

Of course... since you really only have 6 hr's of production... those 4 MC's would need ~960,000lbs of storage cells for half capacity. THAT might take a little more space.

But, HEY! MegaChargers are free anyway... so... what's your beef?? 

[In case it wasn't clear... I was being sarcastic]

[Av8r3400]

34 minutes ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

As we are approaching where the highways are almost solid trucks, maybe we need to rethink moving stuff across the country.  If we got serious, we could make the railroad system work better.  First new track routing that fits the current distribution patterns.  We can add more lanes to the Interstates or add tracks along side.

Even using diesel fuel, the ton miles per gallon of a railroad engine really exceeds what trucks can do.  We could go back to electrification if that is the future style of energy.

By standardizing on inter-modal shipping containers, train could do the long haul and trucks do the short range delivery.

A big rethink to distribution could come up with a great infrastructure program.  But alas, we don't think big, and we nickle and dime solutions with little improvement.

 

That, right there, is the most logical thing I have read in this thread!

[beyerjf]

I live 6 months next to one of the busiest rail lines in the country, northern Indiana. Over 100 trains a day pass that point. And 40% are double stacked 53' domestic containers. They want to build a "bypass" so the trains don't have to get involved with the heavy rail traffic around Chicago. The NIMBYS are going nuts.

So lots of stuff is already going intermodal. It still has to come off the rail somewhere, and that is where the congestion is getting out of control. Tesla battery trucks would do best in that congestion, but the devil is in the numbers. I don't even want to think about where the juice is got to come from since apparently the greens have ruled out nuclear. They don't even like wind farms. 

Interesting concepts to contemplate none the less.

[adept99]

OK, I'll play.  I understand the concept of what a NIMBYS probably is, but I'd kinda like to know what the acronym stands for.

[Jaydrvr]

Here, let me Google that for you..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY

[TheCooks]

For RV purposes I would like to see a hybrid MDT. It gives less distance limitation and puts the torque where gas motors in particular let us down. But even if they put them on the market today I’ll be past my RV days by the time I can afford a used one. 😢

[noteven]

Hi TheCooks

Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Freightliner for sure have marketed hybrid drive MD trucks using an Eaton system / Cummins diesel engine. 

If I remember my test drive details from years ago in a KW, about 250hp diesel / hybrid supplied grade and accel power of about 400hp equivalent. Also had dynamic driveline braking / regen when decelerating.  It had electric pto with autostart on the diesel for municipal manlift and that sort of application. 

Start it up on a cool high desert morning and it would give the deep cycle batteries a stir  and run the toaster and floofy coffee maker