Tesla to unveil electric big rig
While this is interesting, the article is fatally flawed: it doesn't cite the costs of electricity to recharge the batteries, nor does it mention the recharge time for those batteries and as a result is attempting to tout unreasonably high cost savings from using electric rigs.
Having worked for a trucking company, here are the yet-unsolved problems associated with electric big rigs:
1) Range. Even short-haul delivery trucks put on a LOT of miles in a day. The current limit of 200-300 miles isn't going to cut it for most delivery routes.
2) Recharge times. A truck that isn't running isn't making you money. That's the benefit to liquid fuel: you can be back on the road in 15 minutes. A recharge takes hours. Proponents cite the mandatory downtime requirements, but those only apply to single drivers - not teams who need to get product moved quickly.
3) Recharging stations. These aren't exactly plentiful for big rigs, meaning that any notion of OTR (over-the-road) can be shot down right now.
4) Battery costs. The Bloomberg author acknowledges that Tesla is attempting to compete in a very low-margin industry. The problem is that to add the battery packs necessary to extend range prices them completely out of that very industry. Oops.
I just don't get how many people are willing to "invest" billions in this company which isn't turning a profit and isn't likely to any time soon.
A better article than the Bloomberg one is here: https://www.wired.com/2017/06/elon-mu...
Having worked for a trucking company, here are the yet-unsolved problems associated with electric big rigs:
1) Range. Even short-haul delivery trucks put on a LOT of miles in a day. The current limit of 200-300 miles isn't going to cut it for most delivery routes.
2) Recharge times. A truck that isn't running isn't making you money. That's the benefit to liquid fuel: you can be back on the road in 15 minutes. A recharge takes hours. Proponents cite the mandatory downtime requirements, but those only apply to single drivers - not teams who need to get product moved quickly.
3) Recharging stations. These aren't exactly plentiful for big rigs, meaning that any notion of OTR (over-the-road) can be shot down right now.
4) Battery costs. The Bloomberg author acknowledges that Tesla is attempting to compete in a very low-margin industry. The problem is that to add the battery packs necessary to extend range prices them completely out of that very industry. Oops.
I just don't get how many people are willing to "invest" billions in this company which isn't turning a profit and isn't likely to any time soon.
A better article than the Bloomberg one is here: https://www.wired.com/2017/06/elon-mu...
OTOH, maybe Musk thinks that his trucks won't have to pay the taxes currently embedded in diesel fuel. State governments will pop that bubble quickly. Or maybe Musk is expecting his bought reps in government to add more climate change regulations that eliminate the competition from diesel trucks completely. Leave it to Musk to profit at taxpayers and consumers expense.
I'd rather pay Musk to build rockets than NASA.
"I'd rather pay Musk to build rockets than NASA."
I'd give SpaceX a chance before Musk. They've already proven they can do it - and it was privately funded.
Big trucks are all turbo diesels.
Diesels are very efficient to begin with.
Scale (size) increases efficiency.
Trains are ~10x more efficient per pound mile than trucks.
If anyone really wanted to work this non-problem, trains would the natural answer, not better trucks.
Musk is a rich PR guy, not a technologist.
If government really cared about emissions and efficiency there is a diesel catalyst that provides more savings in fuel, more savings in maintenance, and lower emissions. (It also works for land based bunker oil fueled power generation.) But its a small company with no lobbyists and no advertising propaganda budget.
One of the things that has driven (pun intended) us to this point is that the large railroad companies in many cases collapsed (Burlington Northern is one of the last remaining) and the rail lines themselves in most cases would have to be completely re-laid to make them operational. (Remind anyone of a certain book?)
I would also point out that trains also run on diesel fuel. ;)
If train loading/unloading is a real problem, I bet a house payment I can solve it in a week. Trucks for delivery within 100 miles is ok, but that is not how they are used. They cause 75% of the wear on roads, but don't pay that portion, and are therefore subsidized.
Solving the loading/unloading problem is secondary. The first is getting rail lines. ;)
Tesla sales in 2017 through October (10 months) less than 37,000 units.
Short opportunity of the decade?
Yeah, let's not talk about smoke-pumping smoke stacks while trying to "seduce" trucks into buying rigs they have to charge for hours.
A lib would praise all the extra quality family time unless this recharging service is provided by truck stops haunted by drug dealers and lot lizards while the actual point of recharging is coal furnaces beneath smoke stacks.
Me dino knows about truck stops first hand .My most dangerous semi-retired job was being an armed security guard who worked a large truck stop that was already in a bad Birmingham neighborhood. My job was primarily to chase off the scum. I felt way safer when I had my career job, carrying nothing but a stick in a maximum security prison.
his use of the name tesla is an insult to Mr. Tesla.
There is a lot more detail in this article https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/1...
I don't think 300/400 miles on a charge will be enough for the cross country truckers...they usually go 600 miles on their tanks.
All this "electric" stuff and not one word about how they are dealing with or even if they are aware of the dangers of CME's and natural or humanoid made, EMP's.
Can you imagine one of these trucks shutting down on the highway in one of these events...bad enough all the cars will be disabled too but these trucks will have a lot of momentum to overcome in order to stop!
One more thing I forgot is called the PTO or Power Take-Off. It's used for everything from loading ramps to refrigeration units and runs - you got it - off the engines. That's another thing that's going to eat into your battery life - especially when most delivery trucks use it every stop.