We realized rather a lot about Tesla Semi due to a brand new presentation from the pinnacle of the electrical truck program at Tesla, together with the truth that Tesla ran one of many vans 250,000 miles (400,000 km) already.
Tesla Semi has already been “in manufacturing” for nearly 2 years, however the manufacturing has been very restricted and one may even argue that it was a “pilot” run till Tesla brings the automobile to quantity manufacturing at its new facility beneath development in Nevada.
The automaker is believed to have constructed a fleet of about 100 Tesla Semi vans and it’s principally utilizing them internally and with its customer-partner PepsiCo.
Now, Dan Priestley, the pinnacle of the Tesla Semi program, has given a presentation on the IAA convention in Germany at this time to offer an replace on how this system goes.
A video of the presentation hasn’t surfaced but, however folks attending the occasion have launched photos of the slides and among the highlights of the statistics revealed by Priestley:
For instance, we be taught that the Tesla Semi fleet has already traveled 7.5 million miles and {that a} single truck has traveled 250,000 miles (400,000 km) during the last 1.5 years.
Due to the resurgence of shopper electrical automobiles, we already know that electrical powertrains may ship higher efficiency in business vans, however many nonetheless doubt that the batteries may have the power capability and longevity to make business electrical trucking viable.
This information ought to assist persuade extra folks.
With the capability to journey 1,700 km (1,000 miles) in a single day with just about the identical capability of a diesel truck, Tesla is making the argument {that a} Tesla Semi can exchange a diesel class 8 truck one-for-one.
Priestley additionally claimed that Tesla is seeing 95% uptime with the vans, which is essential as downtime means shedding cash for trucking firms.
The arguably most essential data to return out of the presentation is that the present Tesla Semi fleet is proving an effectivity of 100 kWh to journey 100 km (62 miles):
At 1.6 kWh per mile, it is a little higher than the 1.7 kWh per mile that Tesla beforehand predicted.
The engineer mentioned that Tesla plans to ship the electrical vans to extra prospects this yr, however quantity manufacturing goes to return with the brand new manufacturing facility subsequent yr.
The objective is to achieve an annualized manufacturing capability of fifty,000 vans in 2026.
Electrek’s Take
That is superior. Once more, Tesla Semi is this system I’m most enthusiastic about at Tesla proper now. Primarily based on its historical past of delivering environment friendly electrical automobiles in quantity profitably, I believe Tesla is the one to make business electrical vans occur at scale.
There are already many rivals on the market, however none are at the moment speaking about 50,000 items per yr, which might make an actual influence on the business, by 2026.
If these numbers are correct, I believe it may really work,
Now, the larger drawback to resolve goes to be the infrastructure as we’re going to adapt truck stops to assist megawatt charging at scale. It’s not a simple drawback, however it’s solvable and value doing to decarbonize business transportation.
If we couple that charging to low cost renewable power, we’ve a successful resolution.
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