After years of delay, US carmaker Tesla is expected on Thursday to introduce its first battery-powered semi-truck, offering long ranges without recharging to the nascent electric heavy-duty vehicle market. I hope to jump.
The Elon Musk-led company is set to hand over the keys to multinational food giant PepsiCo to its first electric truck – dubbed “Sammy” – at its Nevada manufacturing plant.
With its sleek design, the Tesla Electric Semi has been highly anticipated since Musk unveiled a prototype in 2017, but the start of full-scale production has been delayed further than initially expected in 2019.
Meanwhile, other manufacturers entered the market, from traditional truck makers such as Daimler, Volvo and China’s BYD to startups such as American company Nicola.
The competition has also started shipping them, and is waiting to fill many of their own orders.
However, “the truck the market has been waiting for … is Tesla,” says Dave Mullaney, a transportation expert with sustainability think tank RMI.
Legacy manufacturers have primarily converted their diesel-powered trucks to electric.
“Tesla, on the other hand, was designed to be electric from the very beginning,” says Milne, who also highlighted the company’s 15 years of experience in electric vehicles.
If the Tesla vehicle lives up to expectations, “it will make a huge difference,” says Mullaney.
In a tweet on Saturday, Musk said a semi traveled 500 miles (800 kilometers) with a total weight of 81,000 pounds (about 37 tons).
Electric vehicles currently on offer only have a range of 250 to 300 miles.
Physical limitations?
To carry a heavy load over such a long distance, the battery “has to be very large — which makes it very heavy, takes up a lot of space and is very expensive,” says Mike Roth, director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. . NACFE).
“The industry is kind of wondering if you can physically pack that much battery” and keep the weight of the truck low enough to make it work, Roth adds.
With the ability to travel up to 500 miles without recharging, electric trucks will make long-distance trips more feasible, allowing drivers to return to warehouses the same day.
Even longer trips can be extended over several days if drivers can find charging stations at truck rest stops.
The use of electric light-duty vehicles for short-haul deliveries has been steadily increasing for some time, but new regulations are pushing manufacturers and transporters to accelerate the transition and develop long-haul capabilities.
California, the most populous US state, has passed a law phasing out combustion engine trucks, with other states following suit.
The European Union is also expected to discuss new standards in the coming months.
Companies are also under pressure to have a more environmentally conscious reputation.
They want to “stay on the right side of history,” says Mary Chiron of the Europe-based Association Transport and Environment.
Those not committed to a decarbonization strategy, some of whom say they are waiting for technologies to improve, are “falling behind,” she says.
Another driver of the transition, Roth says, is that drivers who have been able to test them “love electric trucks a lot.”
“They’re very quiet, they don’t smell like exhaust, and they’re comfortable to drive.”
Cost considerations
Several analysts told JEE News that for electric trucks to gain rapid adoption, their range must really live up to the promises and the batteries would ideally shrink.
Charging infrastructure should also be built.
That means adding more charging stations, but also building a robust power distribution system that allows, for example, ten trucks to plug in at the same time in a parking lot.
The biggest factor will definitely be the price.
An electric truck currently costs about 70 percent more than a diesel truck, but it’s cheaper in terms of energy and maintenance, Milne says.
“Battery electric vehicles will be competitive with diesels… it’s only a matter of time,” a spokesman for US manufacturer Navistar, a subsidiary of Trotton, told JEE News.
Tesla now has to “prove they can produce at scale, they need to execute,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.
In late October, Musk said Tesla plans to build 50,000 Semis by 2024.
In 2018, when Tesla struggled to ramp up production of its Model 3 sedan, Musk showed he was capable of speeding up his teams.
Ives says Musk’s focus is unfortunately focused on his latest acquisition, Twitter.
“The circus show there leads to a monumental moment in Tesla’s history,” he adds.
