Tesla delivers there first semi

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Reisender wrote:

Groover wrote:
Personally, I believe that either the quoted VP doesn't have a clue what he is talking about or there is much more to the range reduction than just weight and range. Note that O'Connell never said why the trips would be shorter or why just the initial trips will be shorter. Since he used the term "initially" it is implied that the trucks will eventually be put to work on longer trips.

My personal experience with a Tesla is that weight has almost nothing to do with range. The increased rolling resistance from the extra weight is nearly negligible. There is no way that a legal load would make power consumption increase by a factor of 4.

The reason that ICE engines are affect more by load is that every time they apply the brakes momentum is turned into heat and the only way to replace that momentum is by burning more fuel. An EV turns the motor into a generator which puts the momentum back into the battery for later use. About 10% of the energy is lost as heat but 85 to 90% gets put back to useful work. You can see that in the energy graph where the range actually comes back up when going down hills. You don't see that with ICE engines.

It’s not implied, it’s stated.

Have you done the math? I have. There is a reason that other electric trucks have x amount of range / KWH and and Tesla has 2X's-X/KWH. And it's not because they have a magic battery or battery formula. All you have to do is look at electric pickups and see what they get when towing a tiny trailer and then look at the numbers that Tesla is "alluding" to. All the other truck companies state their numbers and everything is in the open. Tesla is the only company where almost no numbers are given. Funny how that works hu? :S

BTW, you must have a magic Tesla car. Because the more people I pile in my electric car the less miles I get / KWH. It's math and it works. You can't even get a sun roof in my electric car because of the weight and aero penalty.

I do know that when my son used his Model 3 to pull a trailer that was empty one direction and had 3,000lbs in it the other way his overall efficiency was about the same. The effect of the hills was more pronounced but what he lost going up the hills he got back going down.

Aero is a huge factor. It seems to me that many people here are laser focused on weight and mostly ignore the aero effects on efficiency. Weight is important when you are looking a frame strength, hitch setup, drive train cooling and brakes but when just cruising down the road it makes little difference, especially if regeneration is going to be used.