Tesla's first fully loaded electric Class-8 Semi completes its first 500 mile trip

0 0

By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 20th March 2023

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

500 miles is the sweet spot for trucking because truckers have to stop every 8 hours, and this is a major achievement.

Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog.

Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla Semi has completed its first 500-mile trip with a full load – quite a feat for a battery-electric truck. Tesla Semi is an all-electric class 8 commercial truck that Tesla first unveiled in 2017, and it was supposed to be in production in 2019. However, it was delayed several times.

Dubai announces plans to put the entire Emirate onto the blockchain

At the time, it was quite revolutionary to have a purely battery-powered truck with a full 80,000-lb. class 8 capacity capable of traveling between 300 and 500 miles, depending on the model.

Since then, several other companies have managed to beat Tesla to market with class 8 electric semi-trucks, such as Volvo, Freightliner, and Nikola, but they have only managed to come close to the lower end of the range.

Now Tesla is finally bringing its electric truck to market with deliveries expected to start this week, and it’s a 500-mile version of the electric truck. Last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that a Tesla Semi has now completed a 500-mile trip with a full load.

This $130 Million Hyperloop Hotel lets you take your hotel room with you

It seems a bit last minute to complete the first 500-mile drive, considering Tesla is expected to deliver production versions of the truck to customers this week, but Tesla has presumably previously completed many shorter trips that confirmed the full range could reach 500 miles on a single charge.

Five hundred miles with a full load between charges is the sweet spot for a commercial long-haul semi-truck, because after about eight hours of driving, a break for the driver is mandatory.

With that capacity and a much lower cost of operation per mile than diesel trucks, Tesla Semi is expected to have a major impact on the trucking industry, and if the price point is good, which could be confirmed at the event this week, it could truly be a game changer.

Aston Martin unveils its first stunning flying car concept

The 500-mile range on a full charge is going to be good to convince people that battery-electric trucks can take over the whole Class-8 market. However, I think the best use cases at first are going to be for companies, like Tesla, that often need to move a lot of cargo between two locations that they control, like a factory and delivery centers.

That way, it can have charging stations at each location that charges the trucks while they are loaded, and then you get an all-electric and emission-free trip between the locations while massively reducing your fuel costs.

What company will not want that? When it’s going to be time to update their fleets, companies will fight to get those trucks as production ramps up.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, described as “The Adviser behind the Advisers” and a “Young Kurzweil,” is the founder and CEO of the World Futures Forum and the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures consultancy working across the next 50 years, and is an award winning futurist, and author of “Codex of the Future” series.

Regularly featured in the global media, including AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, RT, Viacom, and WIRED, Matthew’s ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of revolutionary emerging technologies on global culture, industry and society, is unparalleled. Recognised for the past six years as one of the world’s foremost futurists, innovation and strategy experts Matthew is an international speaker who helps governments, investors, multi-nationals and regulators around the world envision, build and lead an inclusive, sustainable future.

A rare talent Matthew’s recent work includes mentoring Lunar XPrize teams, re-envisioning global education and training with the G20, and helping the world’s largest organisations envision and ideate the future of their products and services, industries, and countries.

Matthew's clients include three Prime Ministers and several governments, including the G7, Accenture, Aon, Bain & Co, BCG, Credit Suisse, Dell EMC, Dentons, Deloitte, E&Y, GEMS, Huawei, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, Lego, McKinsey, PWC, Qualcomm, SAP, Samsung, Sopra Steria, T-Mobile, and many more.