Tesla Class 8 Semi Truck Thoughts

[AudubonB]

How have we NOT seen a spy photo of the Tesla Semi yet? Isn't there anyone scouting out Hawthorn for an elusive shot of a Semi? Can't be that hard to spot...? I can't believe I am getting so excited about a Semi.

It's hiding in plain sight. On pain of a very painful excommunication-and-then-some, I cannot say more than that.

Other than:

Patience!

 

[Model 3]

I know about the system, but this means they need to adapt the grid everywere and you still can't drive everywere after you did, just the very same route time over time again. It's basically like a metro. They even call it a Trolly I believe.

You are right about how Trolly's works, but this is not that... What you see in this pictures are BEV buses at a charging station, witch typically will be at the normal bus-stop.

 

[3s-a-charm]

It's hiding in plain sight. On pain of a very painful excommunication-and-then-some, I cannot say more than that.

Other than:

Patience!

Interesting...

I would think that even if it were being tested using a different shell (I presume so), that somewhere around Hawthorne there would be a Semi being driven around from time to time that doesn't make a loud "vroom" noise... and someone could take a video to share with those of use with less patience .

 

[Model 3]

Interesting...

I would think that even if it were being tested using a different shell (I presume so), that somewhere around Hawthorne there would be a Semi being driven around from time to time that doesn't make a loud "vroom" noise... and someone could take a video to share with those of use with less patience .

I would listen carefully to the transporters that transport Model 3 cars around... That way they get people to focus on what is transported, not what is transporting

 

[Rowan256]

You are right about how Trolly's works, but this is not that... What you see in this pictures are BEV buses at a charging station, witch typically will be at the normal bus-stop.

But then still, the trucks are excluded, and you can't drive everywere you like, on top of that, you can't use green energy, which is only there when the sun shines.

 

[Model 3]

But then still, the trucks are excluded, and you can't drive everywere you like, on top of that, you can't use green energy, which is only there when the sun shines.

Trucks may be excluded from using this charges at bus-stops yes, but they are not excluded from using the same type of charging station placed where ever the trucks need them.
BEV trucks and BEV buses and BEV cars all can drive wherever they want given that it is a charing infrastructure in place. I do not see anything that may exclude or include the trucks by having one charging possibility at the roof.
I do not see any reason to limit green energy to be charged from the side/bottom and limit charging at the top to be limited to "dirty coal electric". I do not even see how this limitation can be forced? Why?
And why do you not think green wind energy can't be used when the sun do not shine? And why do you think green energy may nok be delivered from batteries when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow? And what in h.. does all this have to do with where the charging port is mounted on the car/bus/truck?

 

[NeverFollow]

It's hiding in plain sight.

 

[Rowan256]

Trucks may be excluded from using this charges at bus-stops yes, but they are not excluded from using the same type of charging station placed where ever the trucks need them.
BEV trucks and BEV buses and BEV cars all can drive wherever they want given that it is a charing infrastructure in place. I do not see anything that may exclude or include the trucks by having one charging possibility at the roof.
I do not see any reason to limit green energy to be charged from the side/bottom and limit charging at the top to be limited to "dirty coal electric". I do not even see how this limitation can be forced? Why?
And why do you not think green wind energy can't be used when the sun do not shine? And why do you think green energy may nok be delivered from batteries when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow? And what in h.. does all this have to do with where the charging port is mounted on the car/bus/truck?

A 1000km is about 1250kW, that's about a 1250kW battery, if you want to charge that, you'll have to suck over a megawatt, even at a 1000 volt you'll still need over a 1000 amps, which is pretty much impossible unless you're able to wait for several hours. A swappeble battery system is able to wait all day and able to charge the empty battery while the truck is still driving.
So instead of changing the grid at loads of places I think it's better to work together to achieve the same goal. I think a compagnie like Shell should create such battery swap stations near just about every industrial area, that way the industrial compagnies can put solar panels on their roofs and drive around on electric trucks with the electricity they generate themself. On top of that the grid is balanced.
The charge along the roof system is just getting the grid out of balance even more as the solar panels alone are already doing.

 

[larmor]

It's hiding in plain sight. On pain of a very painful excommunication-and-then-some, I cannot say more than that.

Other than:

Patience!

Transformers, more than meets the eye!!!

 

[Model 3]

A 1000km is about 1250kW, that's about a 1250kW battery, if you want to charge that, you'll have to suck over a megawatt, even at a 1000 volt you'll still need over a 1000 amps, which is pretty much impossible unless you're able to wait for several hours. A swappeble battery system is able to wait all day and able to charge the empty battery while the truck is still driving.
So instead of changing the grid at loads of places I think it's better to work together to achieve the same goal. I think a compagnie like Shell should create such battery swap stations near just about every industrial area, that way the industrial compagnies can put solar panels on their roofs and drive around on electric trucks with the electricity they generate themself. On top of that the grid is balanced.

The debate about charging vs. battery swap is an interesting discussion well worth doing, but has nothing to do with me or my posts, and has absolutely nothing to do with the arguments that I did replay to.

The charge along the roof system is just getting the grid out of balance even more as the solar panels alone are already doing.

How will the grid get more or less out of balance if the charging is at the roof vs. from under the floor or at the side?

 

[Rowan256]

The debate about charging vs. battery swap is an interesting discussion well worth doing, but has nothing to do with me or my posts, and has absolutely nothing to do with the arguments that I did replay to.

How will the grid get more or less out of balance if the charging is at the roof vs. from under the floor or at the side?

Oh, I'm sorry then.

Supercharging a Tesla peaks at 125kWh if I understood it correct, this is a hell of a lot, it's like 60 electric barbecues turned on at the same time, I guess these busses will ask a similar amount (or even far more as that) of energy at random moments.

A grid is balanced by powerstations, who create more electricity when needed and less when there is less demand. Somehow these powerstations work slow, if you want electricity as soon as possible you'll have to wait a few hours. Now 10kW doesn't matter that much, but 125kW, or even more, that's quite something. And as soon as you got a lot of power and then suddenly stop using it, there is way too much energy created for no reason. Electric cars are doing this all the time, asking a hell of a lot of energy at one moment and 0 a short while after. Solar panels and wind energy can have similar behaviour, give a hell of a lot of energy right now, and give barely anything soon after. Now the grid usually can handle quite a lot of difference, but trucks and busses might ask much much more energy and the wish for green energy is also getting bigger and bigger. That's why Elon Musk could made that battery deal with Australia, randomly putting batteries on the ground there. That's indeed a good fix, but I don't want to just drop batteries randomly alone, I want to double use the batteries and combine several worlds at the same time. That way you can make money while you're making money .

 

[AudubonB]

You almost got it, NeverFollow!
You see, someone's already picked shell-cone #2: nope. That means it must be under #1, 3 or 4.

 

[Model 3]

That means it must be under #1, 3 or 4.

Do you mean under #S, 3 or X?

Well, I start to see what this trucks are for....

 

[Laban]

A 1000km is about 1250kW, that's about a 1250kW battery, if you want to charge that, you'll have to suck over a megawatt, even at a 1000 volt you'll still need over a 1000 amps, which is pretty much impossible unless you're able to wait for several hours.

I think you missed the "up to 1 MW" charging capacity for the opbrid system. Also not sure why you think that this would be a problem. The current Tesla 100 kWh batteries can charge at 120 kW, scale it up to 1000 kWh and you'll get 1200 kW. So the batteries can take it, and making a "plug" that can handle it is not a problem. It just needs to be bigger. You can of course split it up in multiple connections if necessary.

Balancing the grid might require batteries at large charging stations, depending on the grid at that location. Much like what Tesla is already doing on some of their current SC stations.

 

[Rowan256]

I think you missed the "up to 1 MW" charging capacity for the opbrid system. Also not sure why you think that this would be a problem. The current Tesla 100 kWh batteries can charge at 120 kW, scale it up to 1000 kWh and you'll get 1200 kW. So the batteries can take it, and making a "plug" that can handle it is not a problem. It just needs to be bigger. You can of course split it up in multiple connections if necessary.

Balancing the grid might require batteries at large charging stations, depending on the grid at that location. Much like what Tesla is already doing on some of their current SC stations.

I think 1200 kW from the grid each truck/bus, as well as the plug problem as well as the weight of the cable for a human are all much bigger problems as most people think, on top of that I think a battery swap is simply loads more fast compared to charging.

The Netherlands has a peakload of about 21gW, that's a max of about 17.000 trucks charging at the same time if nobody else uses energy (for his car/house/compagny/...), the Netherlands got about a 100.000 trucks. Well do the math.
And please note that The Netherlands actually got one of the most stable grids in the world (and about the dirtiest electricity).

 

[Model 3]

the plug problem as well as the weight of the cable for a human are all much bigger problems as most people think

The problem with the weight of the cable is easy to fix: Just make it so no humans need to handle it. And that will probably also fix the problem with the "plug problem" at the same time.
The solution with the charging at the roof does fix both at the same time... Not that I say that is the only or the best solution, but it is one that does the job.

If a nation does not have enough energy available it has to import it. Reduce your import of oil/gas and import electricity instead. But this time you also have the option to produce more electricity domestic. Battery swapping does not fixes this. What battery swap does fix is the same problem fixed by on-site battery storage + the charging time.

 

[Rowan256]

The problem with the weight of the cable is easy to fix: Just make it so no humans need to handle it. And that will probably also fix the problem with the "plug problem" at the same time.
The solution with the charging at the roof does fix both at the same time... Not that I say that is the only or the best solution, but it is one that does the job.

If a nation does not have enough energy available it has to import it. Reduce your import of oil/gas and import electricity instead. But this time you also have the option to produce more electricity domestic. Battery swapping does not fixes this. What battery swap does fix is the same problem fixed by on-site battery storage + the charging time.

In reality the Netherlands actually has an overcapacity in electricity at this moment and they are actually selling electricity to Belgium who struggles in the winter. Trucks simply use a lot more energy as people seem to realise. I'm still convinced my sollution is better, on top of that it saves about 10% of electricity if you don't need to charge it over to a different battery.

 

[Model 3]

on top of that it saves about 10% of electricity if you don't need to charge it over to a different battery.

That is finally a valid argument for swappable batteries. As I said earlier - swappable batteries is an interesting concept worth debating, separate from what type of charging "plug", witch is would need to have anyway. But it does also have a few problems like the cost of building and operating the swap station vs. a charging station and the ownership of the costly batteries.

 

[Rowan256]

That is finally a valid argument for swappable batteries. As I said earlier - swappable batteries is an interesting concept worth debating, separate from what type of charging "plug", witch is would need to have anyway. But it does also have a few problems like the cost of building and operating the swap station vs. a charging station and the ownership of the costly batteries.

Helping the grid is actually far more important in my opinion, as well as the time, green energy (solar and wind energy) can't work 100% without a massive overcapacity, or batteries, or both. Trucks don't work without batteries at all.

 

[ChrML]

I hope they design the trailer compact so that it fits European use with a maximum total length of 25.25 meters and 50 mtons. That means almost flat front to utilize maximum amount of cargo space.