Tesla Semi Truck

[RegGuheert]

Electrek reports that a Tesla Semi has been spotted in St. Louis!:

Just a few days after completing its first cargo trip, a Tesla Semi electric truck has now been spotted all the way in St-Louis at a Supercharger station.

I wonder if this is part of a tour of customers with the truck, similar to what Boeing and Airbus do with their new planes prior to introduction.

 

[dgpcolorado]

Electrek reports that a Tesla Semi has been spotted in St. Louis!:

Just a few days after completing its first cargo trip, a Tesla Semi electric truck has now been spotted all the way in St-Louis at a Supercharger station.

Must take a long time to Supercharge such a large battery with a single nozzle. I presume that the megachargers will be a lot faster, besides being trailer friendly.

 

[RegGuheert]

Must take a long time to Supercharge such a large battery with a single nozzle. I presume that the megachargers will be a lot faster, besides being trailer friendly.

I read somewhere last week that they can connect to two SuperChargers at the same time. Still, it would take some time.

I'm wondering if I should start looking for the Tesla Semis here in VA.

 

[GRA]

Electrek reports that a Tesla Semi has been spotted in St. Louis!:

Just a few days after completing its first cargo trip, a Tesla Semi electric truck has now been spotted all the way in St-Louis at a Supercharger station.

I wonder if this is part of a tour of customers with the truck, similar to what Boeing and Airbus do with their new planes prior to introduction.

Almost as rare is what appears to be a Think Citi parked next to it. The plastic body is a giveaway.

 

[keydiver]

I wouldn't doubt that they would plug into 4 SC chargers at a time, if the cords would only reach.
If i recall, the Megacharger connector has 8 huge terminals, which would seem to indicate 4 separate battery packs, one for each motor. So, maybe they are charging 2 packs at a time, doubling the charging time compared to a Megacharger. Just a guess.

 

[RegGuheert]

I wonder if this is part of a tour of customers with the truck, similar to what Boeing and Airbus do with their new planes prior to introduction.

It looks like the customer was Anheuser-Busch:

After this first cargo run between Nevada and California, one of the prototypes apparently set out to St-Louis for Anheuser-Busch, the brewer behind Budweiser who also ordered 40 Tesla Semi trucks last year.

People at the early Tesla Semi reservation holder were able to get a close look at the vehicle and Tony Knoblauch sent us a bunch of great up close pictures of the truck (thanks to his brother Brandon too)...

Here is a photograph of a couple of the electric motors and their gearboxes taken during that visit:

 

[NeilBlanchard]

Not really, because per mile driven EVs consume less electricity than gas powered vehicles and considering most of the refining of oil is done in Southern California, as demand for gas goes down, the electricity will be freed up for EVs.

Let's not repeat this oft-stated myth. Here are a few calculations to estimate how much electricity is used to produce each gallon of gasoline:

Some assumptions:
- Each barrel of oil produces about 20 gallons of gasoline
- All oil consumed in the US is refined in the US.
- About 1/2 of the electricity used for pumping oil and refining oil is for the gasoline portion. (The truth is probably lower than this, but this is close enough for these purposes.)

Some data:
- In 2016, the US consume 7.21 billion barrels of oil each year
- In 2016, the US refineries purchased 47.388 billion kWh of electricity
- This site estimates that it takes, on average, 18 kWh to pump a gallon of oil from the ground in CA (back in 2011).

Crunching the number:
- Electricity used to refine each barrel of oil in the US in 2016: 47.388 billion kWh / 7.21 billion barrels = 6.6 kWh/barrel
- Total electricity used to produce and refine each barrel of oil: 24.6 kWh
- Portion of per-barrel electricity used for gasoline: 50% * 24.6 kWh = 12.3 kWh
- Approximate amount of electricity consumed to pump and refine each gallon of gasoline in the US: 12.3 kWh/20 gallons = 0.6 kWh/gallon

The gallon of gasoline will take you between about 15 and 50 miles while the 0.6 kWh of electricity will take you fewer than three miles. In other words, the gasoline allows you to travel 5X to 17X as far as the electricity alone would. Simply put, we need to produce significantly more electricity than we do today in order to convert the transportation sector from oil to electricity.

Extraction takes a LOT of electricity. In California, I heard that oil extraction is the second largest portion of all consumption, statewide. For some extraction operations, they use super heated steam to just get the oil out of the ground.

All that water has to come from somewhere, and that uses a lot of electricity, too.

 

[lorenfb]

Mercedes Benz actually has EV trucks being used by end-customers!

https://electrek.co/2018/02/21/mercedes-benz-all-electric-truck-eactros/

Daimler built two variants with a gross vehicle weight of 18 or 25 tonnes.
The truck is powered by two electric motors with a total power output of 250 kW and powered by two battery packs with a 240 kWh capacity.
The German truck manufacturer describes the powertrain:
The drive system comprises two electric motors located close to the rear-axle wheel hubs. These three-phase asynchronous motors are liquid-cooled and operate with a nominal voltage of 400 volts. They generate an output of 125 kW each, with maximum torque of 485 Nm each. The gearing ratios convert this into 11 000 Nm each, resulting in driving performance on a par with that of a diesel truck.
The maximum permissible axle load stands at the usual 11.5 tonnes. The energy for a range of up to 200 km is provided by two lithium-ion batteries with an output of 240 kWh.
Mercedes Benz actually has EV trucks being used by end-customers!
“We are now passing both two- and three-axle variants of our heavy-duty electric truck, the Mercedes-Benz eActros, into the hands of customers. Initially the focus will be on inner-city goods transport and delivery services – the ranges required here are well within the scope of our Mercedes-Benz eActros.”

The batteries are located in eleven modules –  three of these are located in the frame area and the rest are underneath.

Note: Efficiency - 1.2 kWh / km ( ~ 2 kWh / mi )

 

[RegGuheert]

Tesla Semi was last spotted in Dallas, TX. I wonder if it will come further east.

 

[LeftieBiker]

There were electric milk trucks in operation in England in the 1950s.

 

[keydiver]

Electricity used to refine each barrel of oil in the US in 2016: 47.388 billion kWh / 7.21 billion barrels = 6.6 kWh/barrel

If I am not mistaken, I think what really skews the results in big oil's favor is that the main source of heat for the refining process isn't electricity, its the burning of gas or petroleum, right? So, *technically* they make it look like not much energy is being expended to refine a gallon of gasoline, because they are only including "purchased electricity". If that is true, its not an apples-to-apples comparison. I would like to see true refining costs that include the total amount of energy used for refining, not just bought electricity. Hell, since that quoted info specifies "purchased electricity", a refiner could have a diesel-powered generator onsite making electricity for refining, and that electricity wouldn't be included in these calculations. :?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Electricity used to refine each barrel of oil in the US in 2016: 47.388 billion kWh / 7.21 billion barrels = 6.6 kWh/barrel

If I am not mistaken, I think what really skews the results in big oil's favor is that the main source of heat for the refining process isn't electricity, its the burning of gas or petroleum, right? So, *technically* they make it look like not much energy is being expended to refine a gallon of gasoline, because they are only including "purchased electricity". If that is true, its not an apples-to-apples comparison. I would like to see true refining costs that include the total amount of energy used for refining, not just bought electricity. Hell, since that quoted info specifies "purchased electricity", a refiner could have a diesel-powered generator onsite making electricity for refining, and that electricity wouldn't be included in these calculations. :?

I assumed the reason refiners used electricity is because coal is a lot cheaper than petroleum. Same reason Saudis install solar panels, you don't want to burn stuff you can sell to other schmucks.

 

[RegGuheert]

Electricity used to refine each barrel of oil in the US in 2016: 47.388 billion kWh / 7.21 billion barrels = 6.6 kWh/barrel

If I am not mistaken, I think what really skews the results in big oil's favor is that the main source of heat for the refining process isn't electricity, its the burning of gas or petroleum, right? So, *technically* they make it look like not much energy is being expended to refine a gallon of gasoline, because they are only including "purchased electricity". If that is true, its not an apples-to-apples comparison. I would like to see true refining costs that include the total amount of energy used for refining, not just bought electricity. Hell, since that quoted info specifies "purchased electricity", a refiner could have a diesel-powered generator onsite making electricity for refining, and that electricity wouldn't be included in these calculations. :?

I don't see how you think that skews anything in oil's favor since 6.6 kWh/barrel is such a small number. For those who want to know the context of that quote, here is the link to the post where you got that quote.

 

[RegGuheert]

InsideEVs infers from "Elemental Landscapes LTD's" Semi reservation number that Tesla might now have 1230 reservations for their Semi:

Check out this Instragram post from Elemental Landscapes LTD. It appears to show that the company has reservation #1,230 for the Tesla Semi:

Who knows? Perhaps Tesla started their reservation numbers at 1000...

 

[GRA]

There were electric milk trucks in operation in England in the 1950s.

Aka "Milk Floats," typically three- or four-wheeled golf carts with a truck body - "Psychiatrist . . . Psychiatrist": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI0RiqK3XJc

More directly on point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float The float used in the Python sketch appears to be a 1954 model Wales and Edwards: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_38680-Wales-and-Edwards-1954.html

 

[RegGuheert]

According to Electrek, the Dallas visit was for an event with PepsiCo, who ordered 100 Tesla semis. Since PepsiCo operates a fleet of about 10,000 trucks, that is only about 10% of their annual truck purchase.

 

[AndyH]

There were electric milk trucks in operation in England in the 1950s.

They were still running when I lived there in the early/mid 1980s.

 

[LeftieBiker]

They called them "Milk Floats" I believe. Simple and effective.

 

[AndyH]

Daimler, "who invented the internal combustion engine" (in the 19th century, but hey! That still means they are innovators!) has equipped 300,000 commercial trucks with sensors to gather data on traffic and weather. This puts them solidly at the end of the 20th century, in my mind. The 300,000 is impressive, anyway...

I guess you missed the part about the electric trucks they have on the road. I forget which US companies have class 6/7 EVs on the road as well. I wonder if Tesl@ were able to get any of the performance data from Fedex, UPS, et all trucks?

The Euro truck market's a bit different than the US. Most of their long-haul is via mostly electric train.

While putting sensors on ICE trucks is very 20th century, the point is that they're both testing long-haul BEV trucks but also leveraging their existing fleet to refine the auto-driving convoy aspects. Tesl@ are heading in that direction as well, but since they don't have an existing fleet, they have to follow their Mo del S model of using existing owners as their test team.

(Reductionism and nit picking are hard habits to break, aren't they? The TIR vid was to allow a pull-out to the big picture. Did we miss that? )

 

[RegGuheert]

FedEx Freight places a token order for 20 Tesla Semis.