The BBC News reporters are not that enthusiastic about the Tesla Electric Articulated Lorry,and I heard a BBC Radio 5 Live News report say the average price of a diesel artic is around £84,000 compared to the £200,000 for the price of one of these new Tesla electric lorries.And here is an
excerpt from a BBC news report on the BBC website about the Tesla electric articulated lorry:-
'Competitive market
With Tesla Semi, Mr Musk enters a competitive, demanding market. There are an estimated 3.5 million truck drivers in the US, the vast majority of whom drive diesel-powered engines. Tesla will not be able to compete on diesel’s range, and battery specialists doubt Tesla can produce a powerful enough battery at a reasonable price.
“A 300-mile-capable battery pack costs about $200,000,” a Carnegie Mellon study concluded.
“Which is much higher than a diesel-powered semi-truck, which costs about $120,000, on average, for the entire vehicle.”
Tesla’s electric truckImage copyright Tesla
Mr Musk said the Tesla Semi would be able to travel 643km (400 miles) after 30 minutes of charge at one of Tesla’s new mega-chargers.
The cost?
As for cost, the company said that per mile the Tesla Semi would work out cheaper than a diesel equivalent when fuel and other maintenance is taken into consideration - but did not share the cost of an individual truck.
The Diesel Technology Forum, a non-profit trade group that promotes the use of diesel, said Tesla’s announcement needed to be "evaluated in the context of reality”.
"Diesel is the most energy efficient internal combustion engine,” Allen Schaeffer, the forum’s executive director.
"It has achieved dominance as the technology of choice in the trucking industry over many decades and challenges from many other fuel types.
“Still, today, diesel offers a unique combination of unmatched features: proven fuel efficiency, economical operation, power, reliability, durability, availability, easy access to fuelling and service facilities, and now near-zero emissions performance.”
As well as coming up against diesel incumbents, Tesla also faces other electric rivals. Concept electric big rigs have been unveiled by Daimler, Volkswagen and ■■■■■■■ - though all fall short on range, and none are currently on the roads.
Where Tesla believes it can bring an added advantage is with on-board safety and comfort.
A statement from Tesla boasted that “jackknifing is prevented due to the Semi’s onboard sensors that detect instability and react with positive or negative torque to each wheel while independently actuating all brakes".
"The surround cameras aid object detection and minimise blind spots, automatically alerting the driver to safety hazards and obstacles.
"With Enhanced Autopilot, the Tesla Semi features Automatic Emergency Braking, Automatic Lane Keeping and Lane Departure Warning.”
Autopilot is Tesla’s autonomous driving function that offers several self-driving features, most importantly guiding the vehicle to stay within the lines on the road, and slowing down in keeping with traffic up ahead.’
Hybrid diesel-electric,or even petrol-electric,lorries and other motor vehicle types are the way to go for the foreseeable future - many hybrid electric cars and buses are now in service. Battery electric is not practable enough for lorries and buses - battery electric vehicles have high battery weights,limited range,they are expensive and cannot compete with hybrid electric road vehicles.
I heard years since that conventional internal combustion engines can be modified to run on hydrogen: I’ve just found a Wikipedia article:-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_ … ne_vehicle
Just before I finish this post:Does anybody know what provides the heating for the heaters in battery electric cars? The vehicle’s power battery? Or an
auxillary battery? There must be a considerable power drain from these batteries powering heating elements. That’s another disadvantage with battery electric vehicles - hybrid vehicles get their heating from their petrol and diesel engines 