Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh (PA)
Trucking is a much better fit for Electric. They really can't cover more than 400 miles / day based on operating time requirements, all stop at central locations (rest stops, depots, etc.) making charging easy, require high levels of torque and have a ton of cost upside to efficiency. Seems like Tesla should have started here and gone to autos second.
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I completely agree, except for the developing-trucks-first part.
As stated earlier (and repeated by yours truly on numerous occasions), Tesla is not a car company. It is an energy company. To develop the tech needed for the big-rig tractor, it took a very purposeful path: original Roadster, then large tax-break luxury passenger car, then SUV, then smaller mass-marketed passenger car. Why? Not just tech development: relative economies of scale, appropriate test-bed selection (particularly regarding the Supercharger network), trickle-down parts manufacturing, etc. If Tesla had developed the rig first, the bleeding-money effect would have been exponentially worse with no obvious payback to both shareholders and the general public.
All one really needs to know about the big rig's viability are four things:
- Weight is not a huge issue.
- Think about how these will positively affect another thing: noise pollution. On highways, rigs are THE noise issue.
- Many, many, many more of these will operate in Europe first before the U.S. because Europe -- a place where range, infrastructure, politics, and public acceptance are not huge road blocks -- is plainly the initial target market for them.
- The profit margin for these will be absolutely staggering. Think about how many airlines -- even cheap-o ones (especially those, actually) -- are replacing old gas-guzzling jets in favor of more modern, fuel-sipping ones. The same basic rule applies here: A large initial expenditure for scalable long-term profit generation.
Most truck stops in the U.S. are corporate; they'll have the funds to install what's needed when the time comes.