Tesla Semi truck unveil & test ride set for Oct 26th !

time2roll wrote:

rjstractor wrote:
The way to solve the Tesla Semi's range problem and make it productive for OTR trucking lies in figuring out how to pack enough battery on board to give it an honest 1000 mile range without sacrificing payload. That, or engineer a battery system that can be rapidly swapped.

All things equal, a trucker will drive about 55 to 60 miles per hour. At the end of the 11-hour driving shift, this amounts to 605 to 650 miles per day. Then it is 10 hours of rest.

I don't think Tesla is aiming for the market of multi driver teams. If the load is priority continuous then a fully charged tractor and fresh driver would need to swap the trailer. In the mean time saving $1,000 per week in fuel. That company with 100 trucks saving $100,000 per week will be able to make some accommodations. Crazy to think with 100 trucks running, every two weeks a truck is paid for in fuel savings.

Except for that one little thing...a ready and waiting freshly charged battery powered tractor and spare cab lizard acting as a chase team to pick up the load wherever driver #1 ends up having to stop for the day.