Tesla delivers there first semi

RoyJ 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.

If you read the quote closely, it doesn't say actual range is cut form 425 down to 100 miles, just that they'll test on shorter 100 mile routes. Perhaps until there's data to show what's the actual range.

It likely won't be a factor of 4, or even 2. Maybe 425 down to 300 miles. Regardless, it's enough of a range reduction they're willing to test first before sending it out on the same route of a light load.