We need many Electric Semi makers, but why are all the others so far behind tesla?

These two trucks look very similar but one will cost you far more than the other.

Below I am including a table (compiled by nextbigfuture), It compares the efficiency of all electric semi lorries that are currently hitting the market. Unfortunately any significant look at the table below can only lead to one conclusion – Tesla is currently way ahead of anyone ehlse

Looking at these numbers what do we see? on price, no other truck listed has a price under $300,000, while tesla comes in at $180,000 and $150,000. Indeed with Freightliners trucks, you can by a whole extra truck with the gap between lowest and highest estimate – or looking differently, their most expensive one is priced at about $500,000, for this price you could by 3 tesla semis (indeed you only need to find $540,000 to buy 3 of the long range tesla semis.

What about carrying capacity? It is true that there is one truck on the list with a greater capacity than 45,000kg (45 metric tonnes), but this (an extra 6 tonnes) comes with a loss of about 30% of the range compared to the short range tesla semi; and with the long range tesla you are less than 2 tonnes short of this carrying capacity max.

On range? Only one truck (the Nikola Tre) has a higher range than the standard tesla Semi, so is left in the dust by the long range. Indeed the long range was tested by tesla and came out with a figure of around 550 (it was not run till it stopped). It is conceivable that the shorter range has a similar over shoot giving it 330 – which would make it equal with the next longest range.

However Range is less relevant given the next thing that tesla beats all others on – charging speeds. The tesla Semi can recharge in 30minutes to an hour, which leaves others in the dust. If we compare the long range tesla semi, with a range of 500 miles, in the UK, that would allow about 7 hours of driving before stopping to charge. Given the UK requirement to take 45 minutes break after 4.5 hours (just over 300 miles), it is likely that a UK semi would never use its full 500. Further more, if a 300 mile tesla can fully recharge in 30 minutes, then a 45 minutes break after 315 would fully allow the truck to fully recharge. In other words, if a truck starts the day fully charged, then it will always be ready to carry on before the driver is allowed to.

The tesla semi takes about 1.7kwh to drive a mile, and the only truck on the list which beats this has a carrying capacity of under 1/3 of the tesla semi. The most power hunger truck on the list takes 3.2 kwh per mile (the lion lion 8t) or just short of twice the semi requirements.

What is the conclusion? Tesla is the clear favourite across pretty much all areas. Why would you buy another? Perhaps you have always driven trucks by Mercedes or someone else. The problem is, what is clear from both electric cars and trucks, long company life is not a good indicator on success. Tesla electric cars are far away the most reliable easiest to run, and generally cheapest over their lifetime. Also the tesla supercharger network leaves all other users in their dust. Might they open up the mega charger network? probably not for another 10 years. It is true that it is only in its infancy, but this will grow very fast.

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