Tesla Semi - What say ye?

[MSHappyCampers]

https://www.electriccitymagazine.ca/...jWzTBMtwTFuPOQ

[Alpine36]

Looks impressive. Anything’s possible with enough money, time and resources, including charge infrastructure for “overnight” charging.

[jharrell]

I say you're looking at the future, just not sure how far out. A rich person will build one of these super C's within the next year or two if they can get their hands on the tractor.

EV's will dominate city driving, including busses, local delivery and most commuters.

Long haul trucking and RV's will remain diesel for a while, but gas may displaced sooner by batteries.

Lithium battery tech will continue to improve slowly and steadily as it has since the 1970's and will at some point displace diesel and even jet engines, especially if we can work out Lithium-Sulphur batteries, and progress is being made there.

Fossil fuel will be relegated to power plants as one of many sources of electricity, all complicated emissions gear maintained there by dedicated staff rather than in my engine compartment.

[Marine359]

IMO, Musk is not the only innovator in the ev field. There are thousands of engineers smarter than Musk, and millions of dollars being poured into R&D for OTR EV technology. Tesla will be overtaken by a Tsunami of development that likely will yield an EV RV that most people will be able to buy, Tesla just gets the notoriety and the press because of the name. I predict ( that and six buck will get you a latte at Starbucks) The first Ev Rv with a range of over 300 miles will not be derived from a Tesla platform.

[propchef]

Originally Posted by Marine359

IMO, Musk is not the only innovator in the ev field. There are thousands of engineers smarter than Musk, and millions of dollars being poured into R&D for OTR EV technology. Tesla will be overtaken by a Tsunami of development that likely will yield an EV RV that most people will be able to buy, Tesla just gets the notoriety and the press because of the name. I predict ( that and six buck will get you a latte at Starbucks) The first Ev Rv with a range of over 300 miles will not be derived from a Tesla platform.

I agree. Most likely Mercedes since they already have an EV RV with a 250-mile (claimed) range. VAG (Volkswagon/Porsche/Audi) is far ahead of just about everyone else and you'll likely see one under the VW name.

https://www.hotcars.com/europes-firs...-mercedes-eqv/

ZF also has a dog in this fight. They make electric and hybrid drives for a number of manufacturers, including Airstream. They were the ones behind the E-Stream.

[BayRunner]

Originally Posted by jharrell

I say you're looking at the future, just not sure how far out. A rich person will build one of these super C's within the next year or two if they can get their hands on the tractor.

EV's will dominate city driving, including busses, local delivery and most commuters.

Long haul trucking and RV's will remain diesel for a while, but gas may displaced sooner by batteries.

Lithium battery tech will continue to improve slowly and steadily as it has since the 1970's and will at some point displace diesel and even jet engines, especially if we can work out Lithium-Sulphur batteries, and progress is being made there.

Fossil fuel will be relegated to power plants as one of many sources of electricity, all complicated emissions gear maintained there by dedicated staff rather than in my engine compartment.

Solid state batteries are gong to place a major factor into the EV world. Large companies such as Toyota have been putting massive resources into their SS R&D.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by BayRunner

Solid state batteries are gong to place a major factor into the EV world. Large companies such as Toyota have been putting massive resources into their SS R&D.

Solid state is pretty nebulous and more of a configuration than chemistry, I agree though in a 100 years everything will probably be running on extremely stable and safe solid state lithium sulphur batteries with 2000+ wH/kg of density.

Here is the current state and its not pretty full of a lot of marketing BS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pu8hs6hmyk

[moisheh]

Do not hold your breath. As far as the semi tractor is concerned: There is zero infrastucture for that truck. They claim it was loaded to 81,000 gross. But they have not disclosed the payload. If it cannot carry 44,000 lbs. it will be useless. Sure would not go 500 miles in cold weather. Presently at truck stops when you fill up there are other trucks filling at the same time. Over 24 hours that is a lot of vehicles. You need 70 ft. to park at a charging station. Presently with only a few vehicles it would work. But if 30% of the fleets became electric an investment of billions would be required for the electric grid.. FL has a small amount of day cabs that are running in California. I believe it is a short haul. The trucking company has a charge station at each end. That works. Delivery vans that return to their terminal every day could easily use electric vehicles. Technology will change but it will not be in 10 years. Maybe 20 or 30. AS for a motorhome: Where would you charge it? CG's will not spend the thousands required for a charging station. Each site would require a connection. They would have to be reserved so you could be assured of a charge. We winter in Mexico and the City of Hermosillo has 220 electric suv's. Seems to be a good idea. Strange to be on the sidewalk and a cruiser passes you in silence.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by moisheh

They claim it was loaded to 81,000 gross. But they have not disclosed the payload. If it cannot carry 44,000 lbs. it will be useless.

Based on 0-60 times posted in 2017 from Tesla, the tractor weighs 20,000 lbs. A avg diesel tractor weight 17,000 lbs, EV's and natural gas get a 2000 lbs allowance to 82,000 lbs total, so you're looking at 1000 lbs loss of max cargo if that's accurate.

Most loads are not at max weight and this is not an issue, Doritos have a lot of air in them.

Diesels are measured dry, you must add fuel weight, electrons don't weigh anything, full load of diesel is 1000 lbs easy.

[DrivingDan]

Originally Posted by jharrell

electrons don't weigh anything

Leptons all carry mass actually ... lol, sorry, ex particle physicist, ignore me

Speaking of physics didn't some Mercedes wonk, like the CEO or something, say (in regards to the Tesla semi) 'you can't break the laws of physics'? Oops ...

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by DrivingDan

Leptons all carry mass actually ... lol, sorry, ex particle physicist, ignore me

Just seeing if anyone is paying attention, if my math is right a 1000 kWh battery will be 30 milligrams heavier with a full charge, might have to shave little cargo off.

[Joe Ogiba]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

https://www.electriccitymagazine.ca/...jWzTBMtwTFuPOQ

Four rear axles and zero ground clearance off road is too funny but a 57ft semi 5th wheel RV trailer with the Tesla semi would work.
https://youtu.be/0t1xSHwuLyE

[kdauto]

Other than the 150' turning radius and catching and high-centering on every speedbump and entryway I believe it will happen. Of course, the cartoonish rendering will be quite different in real life, probably an extra 12" of ground clearance and several fewer feet of wheelbase.

If they can build and sell 2 million dollar Prevost mohos, they can do it with these. It would even make sense to cater to that crowd. The noise level would be very low on the road, access to power for everything is right there, no need for loud and smelly gensets running most of the time.

[moisheh]

The power in a CG is not already there. For starters the power to the truck will be metered. The transformers in the CG and the cables could not handle multiple draws. Billions will have to be spent by public utilities to handle the demand from all the vehicles that need power. If a CG put in just a few sites with the power what would you do if your batteries were low and no place to get a charge.