Does The Tesla Semi Make Any Sense? Part 2!

With the latest details released on Tesla Semi, does it still hold up?

Now that Pepsi has taken delivery of 36 Tesla Semis, with plans for 100 through 2023, we have a few more details about Tesla's Class 8 truck offering. We'll see which claims hold up, and which don't, diving into the battery capacity, range, and weight. Does the Tesla Semi make any sense?

We'll look at eight major aspects:
1. What is the battery capacity?
2. Tesla's 500 mile test drive.
3. What is the real world range?
4. How far do Class 8 trucks need to go?
5. How much does the battery weigh?
6. What is the cargo load deficit versus a diesel truck?
7. What is the load capacity of the Tesla Semi?
8. How much weight do Class 8 trucks need to carry?

References:

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[EngineeringExplained]

**Important Note!** I left out a source for the 7.3 mpg figure for diesels, this comes from the Transportation Energy Data Book (Dept. of Energy) often referenced in the video, and references "all class 8 trucks on flat terrain." I figured since I'm using flat ground for my Tesla calculations, I'd apply the same benefit to diesel. The 5.3 mpg figure referenced in the first video was also from Dept. of Energy (video description links all sources). And to the truckers in the comments, hello and thank you for sharing your experiences! Y'all are the best drivers on the road, and I mean that. Respect!

[bigstick]

I have to say, you’re the only person to make a math video both understandable and interesting. Thanks.

[mrspeigle]

Hey truck driver here, point on speed.
It's extremely common for trucking companies to set the governed speed on their trucks to between 60 and 65 mph due to the beneficial impact on fuel economy. I've rarely had a truck that could manage 75 and that was always a rental.
Either way the semi in its current iteration was not designed for long haul.

[petervanderwaart]

Fun fact: sugar sweetened sodas are heavier than diet sodas. When I worked on a soda delivery project, the sugared sodas weighed out but the diet sodas cubed out based on NJ and NY rules.
The Pepsi trucks will be used to move soda from a bottling plant to warehouses around the service area, and the delivery distance will be anywhere from 10 or 20 miles up to a few hundred miles. There may be a few places where soda gets hauled over 500 miles, but that would be the exception, not the rule

[jaredwilliams]

I love how you manage to extract useful data out of seemingly unrelated and useless videos and pictures Tesla has put out. I loved using the tire size to verify the length of the barricades.

[o]

My dad was a truck driver and he used to tell me no matter how long your route is, if you stop more that 5 times (stop signs, lights, yield signs, etc) it's basically impossible to average more than 55mph. Now I'm starting to wonder if that was true or not... Seemed true at the time!

[victorradu]

Living in a sea port City, I see plenty of semi driving containers over the last miles from the railyard to the port and back, in congested traffic. Those electric semi may be the best solution for this application while also removing the pollution from the urban centers. I still doubt their usefulness over long haul, at least until the charging infrastructure develops

[TrendyStone]

Great video. I’m a mechanical engineer and your analysis is great. I think it’s obvious the Tesla semi will start as a short / medium haul truck. There are many situations where these will make sense and over time as technology, specifically battery density, improves over time longer hauls could make sense.

[matiasg]

Loved the part where you read the tire size to calculate the size of the load.

[mmdias]

Thank you! Tired of people doing shady math based of half a sentence from random articles. Thanks for actually doing some research and trying to be as empirical and objective as possible. I am a big fan of Tesla engineering but I’m sick and tired of the bias (both for and against). Let’s be objective and impartial.

[tonyarce]

As a mechanical engineer currently working on class 8 EV’s, I found this video very informative and enjoyable.

[eh]

My assumption has always been that vans & reefers are cube constrained, not weight. Dump trailers and flat decks do often appear weight constrained (gravel, steel, etc). And there is a massive LTL and short/mid haul industry - even up here in the frozen land of Hoth. Many farms hauling grain / livestock are just going from farm to terminal/feedlot/processing plant. Massive cross docking warehouses shuffling loads that may have come in via long haul, but then head out on short haul runs where the driver makes 2-3 trips / day and goes home for supper.
An electric semi w/ 500mile range is a totally useful, necessary product. Now can be financially viable. That's the question.

[laszlobauer]

As a European, I am again amazed by Texas. 85mph speed limit for trucks?! That's illegal in most countries of the world, even for passenger vehicles.

[thepeff]

You're one of the few motorists that I'll let teach me about semi trucks

[KerbalLauncher]

Another thing to consider is that the amount of battery that goes into a single tesla semi can make over 50 plug-in hybrid cars. A lot of criticism is not necessarily about the feasibility, but rather the allocation of scarce resources.

[Broadpaw_Fox]

Neat fact - at 10:45 when talking about load weights, that 54k lbs is very high for a normal road truck. With the 80k lbs cap, most road trucks max out the load at 45k lbs - doesn't matter if dry van, flatbed or reefer. 45k lb load is normal and considered to be the cap, and depending on the configuration at the time might even be too high to juggle the axles to be legal.

So that was a good stat. 😀

[danoberste]

As always, you answered almost all of the questions I had. One statistic I looked for, but couldn't find, was regarding the weight of loads, is how far do heavy loads typically travel? I have hauled thousands of miles towing a trailer, but the trips I've driven when nearly fully loaded have ALWAYS been just barely, if at all, in the double digits of miles. If I have heavy loads to haul I find the nearest source to reduce my fuel costs. I'll haul firewood from home to the cabin, but if I need stone? I'm looking to get that from the nearest supply source. I wonder if that thinking holds true for truck shipping too.

[jasonligo]

Jason, It is great that you show the math behind all of the engineering concepts you discuss. Performing math and logic was always a bit of a struggle for me. However, when I see you use it, it seems a lot less intimidating and it makes me want to use it more.

[J-Bombs]

the issue with the FMCSA and other agencies gathering data on truck weights are that they are taking all truck weights gathered and not looking at all truck weights collected when loaded. The data is skewed due to many of the trucks moving empty to pick up another load elsewhere meaning that the entire segment about truck capacity is primarily based on a false premise. You are better off talking to Werner Enterprises, Schinder, or Crete about their average weighted loads, having worked for them before I recall the average being much closer to 78K - 79K loaded, most tractors were just a few thousand off of the legal limit.

[thomasdowd]

I love the format of your math breakdown videos. Very nice to see some straightforward calculations instead of just speculation.