Tesla semi hits the streets

by Steve Sturgess

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — Tesla hit the streets running with its much anticipated “semi” last night at a reveal party attended by the world’s press, Tesla officials, and employees from both the assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., and the Giga Li-Ion battery plant in Nevada. No static launch for CEO and product architect of Tesla, Elon Musk, as he stepped down from the cab of the much-heralded truck to highlight its features before a sea of fans.

And it was not just one static prototype on stage, but two models of the semi that roared into a hangar at the Jet Center, a private-plane airport adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport in Hawthorne, Calif.

Elon Musk introduces the Tesla semi

To rousing cheers from an audience of around 1,200 people, Musk extolled the performance features of the semi: a range of 500 miles, zero to 60 mph of the tractor in just five seconds, zero to 60 of a fully freighted, 80,000-lb tractor0trailer in just 30 seconds. But most significantly for the truckers in the audience, a cost per mile of US$1.25, comparing favorably to today’s diesel truck cost of $1.51. He did not specify the trade cycle or the structure of the financing but did say that Tesla was aiming for zero breakdowns in a million miles of operation.

According to Internet reports, truckload carrier J.B. Hunt is among the first carriers to publicly reveal it has reserved the truck, saying it has reserved “multiple Tesla semis.”

“Reserving Tesla trucks marks an important step in our efforts to implement industry-changing technology,” said John Roberts, president and chief executive officer at J.B. Hunt. “We believe electric trucks will be most beneficial on local and dray routes, and we look forward to utilizing this new, sustainable technology.”

Major North American Grocery chain Meijer also said it has placed down $5,000 to reserve four models – though reservations are reported to be $5,000 per truck. Production is due in 2019.

In reality, the reveal confirmed what the spy and tease photos had already disclosed: a cab forward Class 8 truck with exceptional smooth lines and promised great aerodynamic performance, a fact highlighted in Musk’s remarks. He said that the 500-mile range was enabled by exceptional aerodynamics, with the semi scoring a drag coefficient of 0.36, better even that the Bugatti Chiron’s 0.38. He also noted the cab side extenders that actively fill the gap between tractor and trailer also contribute to the overall low drag. Worth noting: the tractor at launch looked like a sleeper because of these long, active side extenders.

The trucks will most likely fill a distribution and drayage role, at least in the early stages. The semi is purely battery-electric.

The Tesla semi interior.

In his presentation, Musk said that 80% of truck distribution is less than 500 miles round-trip, so the semi can get out and back on those tasks on a single charge. For longer trips, the batteries can pick up a 400-mile charge in the short half-hour break mandated by hours-of-service regulations.

And Tesla Fast Chargers are popping up all over the world, wherever Tesla sells a passenger car. So, Tesla semi trucks can realistically be recharged at shipper and receiver docks. With the electrical distribution infrastructure in place and robust, there’s no need to stop en-route at a truck stop to fuel any more, he implied.

And because many of the fast chargers are solar powered, Musk said “Anywhere a consumer can charge a Tesla you can charge the truck. Solar powered mega chargers mean the truck is running on sunlight.”

Those sneak preview pictures gave no hint about the driver environment, which is a highlight of the Tesla semi. A centrally located driver’s seat gives a commanding view behind the enormous curved windshield. The side glass flows smoothly around the A pillars that are surprisingly thin, so the driver’s view forward is excellent. The steering position with a small, car-like wheel on the model at the preview was flanked on either side by flat panel displays from the Model 3 that are customizable as in the Tesla cars. In fact, this not only represents a major advance in driver controls, it is actually cheaper for Tesla to integrate the same flat panel technology it uses in the cars.

These are completely customizable and Tesla plans to have truck-specific software to air in business connectivity for the truck. It also has a full suite of prognostics, maintenance reminders and can even have an electronic data recorder integrated to accommodate the upcoming electronic driver hours recording mandate for the USA.

The truck is also equipped with the full Tesla accident avoidance technology that prevents collisions and keeps the truck in-lane. It also includes Tesla’s autonomous driving technology, and enables three-truck platooning, said Musk. In such a case, the semi is not just cost-effective against diesel trucks of today, it is also cost-effective against the railways.

The trucking and general press had an opportunity for an up-close walk-around of the semi. One one, there was a small passenger seat against the back wall of the day cab for a riding helper or driver instructor. For anyone who attended the launch of the Nikola, there are obvious similarities to the Nikola launched last year. But there are significant differences, too. The 6×4 walk-around truck featured a drive tandem, each conventionally air sprung drive axles featuring a power pack from a Model 3 on the nose of the axle with a motor for each side, totaling four drive motors in all. Musk said that even if two motors failed, the Semi would have performance equal to a diesel truck of today.

The air-ride is conventional Class 8 with regular looking frame rails. The front axle features independent suspension for good ride. The Tesla guide said the battery pack resides beneath the cab, and a conventional fifth wheel allows for trailer coupling. The cab looks like a sleeper from the outside but that’s because the cab sides extend well back from the back of cab.

Access to the cab is to the rear of the seating position through a rear-hinged “suicide” door with three steps tapering in toward the center of the cab. The floor is stepped, presumably to allow for the batteries beneath with a step up to the driving position. The side glass is hinged down its leading edge and opens for ventilation or to pass documents down to gate guards or enforcement officers. The door glass and opposite side fixed glass do not open, removing the need for any lift mechanism that could fail in use. The door and cab sides have generous storage for documents and driver necessities.

Interestingly, the door hinges are hidden and the door handle (from the Model 3) recessed so the sides are super clean. Of the two models on display, one featured conventional mirrors, the other a visibility system with cameras mounted high toward the back of cab. There was a single pantograph-arm windshield wiper to sweep the vast windshield.

Musk joked that the glass “can withstand a nuclear explosion or the customer gets a free refund,” while emphasizing the point that the truck is optimized for minimum downtime, citing the out-of-service implications of a broken windshield.

Features like these show that the design team understands the needs of the commercial user of the Tesla product. If it delivers that operational savings promised, early customers like Hunt will be delighted. Technicians too, because the electric drivetrain is so much less complicated than the emissions-saddled diesel powertrain. But drivers? They’ll hate it if they prefer “real” trucks. But millennials – and that’s where the new drivers are to come from – will love them.

At least one Canadian fleet in attendance at the reveal – Bison Transport – is eager to try the new truck out.

Rob Penner, chief executive officer of Bison, told Trucknews.com “I was down in Santa Clara earlier and was able to test drive the Tesla “mule” (Tesla tech in a Cascadia) and the performance was really impressive. They have been running this truck for about a year moving their own parts in and out of Nevada with very good performance data. Add the styling and safety features in their own ground-up truck design and one can’t help but be optimistic about the future of this technology. We look forward to getting our hands on these trucks once they become available.”

Loblaw also acknowledged in a Tweet that it has placed an order for the trucks.

“As part of our recent commitment to electrify our fleet, we have been in discussions with Tesla,” the company tweeted. “We’ve placed an order for a number of trucks and will have them in Canada as soon as they’re available.”

Elon Musk addresses the audience.

 

 


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  • California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, 401 Corridor… yes probably. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northern Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and Newfoundland… gonna freeze your a$$ off in one of those, Millennial or not.

  • Ok so, love how all these electric vehicles all have the same laundry list of talking points, so environmentally friendly, efficent, way of the future and so on. So the zero tail pipe emissions is one main piont, but ironically never mention that the producton of the battery for their car platform has the carbon footprint of driving a gasoline car for 5 yrs (or more)
    There is also a few other nasty details i’ve yet to hear creditable answers to.
    1) how is road tax and IFTA going to work? Pay for it up front with your plates? $100000 plates perhaps?
    2) when Bison does take possession of their hydro burners, and they are involved in their invitable rollover or hammering into a rock cut in norther ontario or BC, will they need a has-mat team to clean up the toxic mess of battery amd other precious metals?
    These are just a couple things, ontop of the obvious things like the massive subsidies that have kept Teslas doors open to this day. You buy a tesla, and get a kick back couresy of the tax payer. Here in ontario, nothing like charging your subsidized tesla with green energy subsidized hydro courtesy of the OPG racket, overseen by the wynne mob.
    It just never ends…..work hard, so you can pay lots of taxes to keep the subsidies flowing
    ….