We discovered quite a bit about Tesla Semi because of 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 car to quantity manufacturing at its new facility beneath building in Nevada.
The automaker is believed to have constructed a fleet of about 100 Tesla Semi vans and it’s largely 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 present to provide an replace on how this system goes.
A video of the presentation hasn’t surfaced but, however individuals attending the occasion have launched photos of the slides and a number of the highlights of the statistics revealed by Priestley:
For instance, we study 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) over the past 1.5 years.
Because of the resurgence of shopper electrical automobiles, we already know that electrical powertrains may ship higher efficiency in industrial vans, however many nonetheless doubt that the batteries may have the vitality capability and longevity to make industrial electrical trucking viable.
This knowledge ought to assist persuade extra individuals.
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 substitute a diesel class 8 truck one-for-one.
Priestley additionally claimed that Tesla is seeing 95% uptime with the vans, which is vital as downtime means shedding cash for trucking firms.
The arguably most vital info to come back 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, this can be a little higher than the 1.7 kWh per mile that Tesla beforehand predicted.
The engineer stated that Tesla plans to ship the electrical vans to extra prospects this 12 months, however quantity manufacturing goes to come back with the brand new manufacturing unit subsequent 12 months.
The purpose is to succeed in 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 feel Tesla is the one to make industrial electrical vans occur at scale.
There are already many rivals on the market, however none are at present speaking about 50,000 models per 12 months, which might make an actual impression on the trade, by 2026.
If these numbers are correct, I feel it may really work,
Now, the larger drawback to resolve goes to be the infrastructure as we’re going to adapt truck stops to help megawatt charging at scale. It’s not a straightforward drawback, however it’s solvable and value doing to decarbonize industrial transportation.
If we couple that charging to low cost renewable vitality, we’ve got a profitable resolution.
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