How hard would it be to make an electric semi truck

[Rashomon]

Hybrids are a dead end. Just a delaying tactic that allows for something that can be 'sold' to those who aren't willing to do the math in the short term. Well within a decade, the best that can be accomplished with a hybrid will be surpassed by electric drive. Fact of the matter is that no one enjoys filling up with gasoline or diesel. It has nothing to do with range. It is all about visiting the gas station as few times as possible. And the promise of fully electric drive is lowering that count to a 'never again' total.

Hey, I'm going to be at the sustainable aviation conference in a few weeks, visiting friends who are making interesting things happen, things that will really change the world. Hybrids are what you do when you need more energy density than is going to be available in the foreseeable future. Are they a dead end? Of course. Someday they may not make sense, but this is not that day, and it's not real likely to come for the more difficult applications in the next 10 or 15 years. There are a lot of dead start-up companies out there that didn't reflect long and hard on the correspondence between actual engineering possibilities and real world needs and desires. Tesla has been laser-focused on that, and that's why they have had an impact.

 

[GSP]

@Rashomon,

Please tell us about what happens at the sustainable aviation conference. I am curious about the market for short range 50-100-150 passenger aircraft. Is it large enough to pay for development of a battery powered airliner? Or do the airlines need to be able to use all planes on longer routes 200-300+ miles)?

Please do use the electric airplanes thread. This semi-tractor-trailer thread seems to be way off topic. I am very curious how Tesla is going to compete in the line haul or short haul markets. They will have to be lower total cost of operation than than diesel tractors to survive in these markets. If they are counting on running autonomous trucks vs. operator driven ICE competition, they may find that Daimler and other ICE truck makers are not that far behind in autonomy.

GSP

 

[Red Sage]

That's a lot of power to be demanded all at once which is why I was unsure if a the infrastructure could supply that much power at once.

The company I work for the trucks drive for 622 miles roundtrip. The day driver gets back and the night driver drives it overnight a hour or so after the day guy leaves it. Sometimes the trucks only sit in the yard a half hour so there would have to be massive fast charging. 80% in 30 minutes will be a requirement I predict. Many local companies operate this way. Over-The-Road have too many challenges so they will be the very last trucks to go electric. Actually some carriers may die out because of this.

Not a worry. Superchargers for trucks would certainly use massive installations of fixed battery storage to smooth demand. When not in use, they would slowly fill from the grid or solar power. Then, when filling vehicles, some power would be provided by the grid while the rest would come from stationary battery packs. These could be installed at your private site upon request. But Tesla would certainly make sure there were publicly accessible sites as well.

 

[Red Sage]

Hey, I'm going to be at the sustainable aviation conference in a few weeks, visiting friends who are making interesting things happen, things that will really change the world. Hybrids are what you do when you need more energy density than is going to be available in the foreseeable future. Are they a dead end? Of course. Someday they may not make sense, but this is not that day, and it's not real likely to come for the more difficult applications in the next 10 or 15 years. There are a lot of dead start-up companies out there that didn't reflect long and hard on the correspondence between actual engineering possibilities and real world needs and desires. Tesla has been laser-focused on that, and that's why they have had an impact.

I believe it will be within the 10-to-15 year window that those hard issues are largely solved. I believe that within 20 years the hard work you speak of shall have borne fruit well beyond what most consider feasible today. When it comes to aeronautics, it is the presumption that losing the weight of fuel as it is burned off to allow for greater range that battery electric planes will do away with. So maximum range may be a bit lower than hoped for a while. But once the threshold has been crossed, there will be no turning back.

 

[wcfinvader]

Not a worry. Superchargers for trucks would certainly use massive installations of fixed battery storage to smooth demand. When not in use, they would slowly fill from the grid or solar power. Then, when filling vehicles, some power would be provided by the grid while the rest would come from stationary battery packs. These could be installed at your private site upon request. But Tesla would certainly make sure there were publicly accessible sites as well.

^^^^This makes sense^^^^

I believe it will be within the 10-to-15 year window that those hard issues are largely solved. I believe that within 20 years the hard work you speak of shall have borne fruit well beyond what most consider feasible today. When it comes to aeronautics, it is the presumption that losing the weight of fuel as it is burned off to allow for greater range that battery electric planes will do away with. So maximum range may be a bit lower than hoped for a while. But once the threshold has been crossed, there will be no turning back.

I think you're right here as well. The trucking industry seems to be very slow when it comes to change. We just recently got all Truck manufacturers to use DEF fuel. Some drug their feet and some tried failed ways around not having DEF fuel. I can see it being much the same when it comes to electric trucks. I sure hope Elon can make enough batteries . we might need a second Gigafactory just for the Trucking industry if he is serious about the Electric Semi (which I think he is).