The 2024 Tesla Semi Update Is Here!

the biggest product made by Tesla in 2024 quite literally is their electric semiu but in spite of its overwhelming size the Tesla semi has remained shrouded in mystery which is exactly what we're trying to cut through with today's update so let's have a look at how far the semi has come and where it's going in 2024 on January 23rd Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo announced that Tesla plan to invest an additional $3.6 billion to expand gigafactory Nevada Tesla published a blog post the next day providing further details on what this meant the tech giant will be hiring 3,000 new team members and constructing two production facilities one of which will be a dedicated high volume Factory to manufacture the Tesla semi the second will be a 4680 cell Factory with the capacity to produce enough batteries for 1.5 million light duty Vehicles annually this is very welcome news following the Tesla semi's outstanding performance at the runon L event organized by the North American Council for Freight efficiency late last year for more than two weeks the nacf tracked information on a series of metrics as 22 trucks traveled across North America fulfilling actual orders the data recorded covered charging infrastructure charge management truck performance and cost of ownership among others in the data released by the trucking research group the best performing Tesla semi covered an average of 574 m per day over 18 days to put that in perspective the next closest non- Tesla vehicle was wat ev's nickolet tray Bev covering less than half that distance at a mere 255 M A Day followed by the freight liner EC Cascadia with an average of 181 Mi now that is a massive Gap in real world use between Tesla and its competitors and if longer distance stins were still a concern one Pepsi Co Tesla semi traveled 1,076 mi in a single day with three fast charging stops at 750 kilowatt Chargers Pepsi Co Tesla's current sole customer said 60% of the miles driven over the course of the event were with a gross weight of more than 72,000 lb which is pretty close to the 82,000 limit for zero emission semi trctor trailer Combos and data collected during the event showed the semi can travel about 400 mil and then recharge to about 80% in 45 minutes but we already had a good idea of what the semi was capable of when pepsic Co put out a video in August 2023 explaining how it uses its trucks what the run-on L event does though is give the Tesla semi and Its Real World capabilities a lot of credibility from an external party and an unbiased research group this is something Fleet operators and potential customers will certainly be paying close attention to and there are quite a few of them well PepsiCo is the only company to have taken delivery of the Tesla semi there are quite a few who have placed pre-orders for the vehicle since it was first announced all the way back in 2017 pepsic Co ordered 100 units but it's actually ups that has the largest order to date reserving 12 25 big players like DHL have been more conservative with an order of just 10 preferring to test the waters first but the order book is filling up nonetheless with everyone from Freight Service Providers to Walmart unfortunately only PepsiCo has seen their trucks and even they haven't received all the vehicles they've ordered yet it's not only a commitment to going green and saving the environment that is driving interest in the Tesla semi switching to an electric vehicle like the semi can have sign significant financial benefits as well and we all know money speaks louder than anything Greta thunberg could ever scream Dan Priestley Tesla senior manager of semi- engineering said on an episode of J Leno's garage that in the first 3 years of operation you're looking at nearly $200,000 in fuel savings alone and this doesn't even include the vast difference in maintenance costs between a fossil fuel vehicle and an EV for Fleet operators that Financial saving can rapidly hit millions of course there is the cost of purchasing the semis themselves while Tesla hasn't officially listed its price industry experts agree the 500 Mile variant is around $180,000 but an even bigger concern one that is common to all forms of EVS is charging infrastructure with an 850 to 900 KW hour battery a standard Tesla Supercharger just wouldn't cut it instead Tesla developed a new 750 k kilowatt mega charger that can charge these massive batteries to 70% in 30 minutes the charger is a feat of Engineering in itself but it is an additional thing to consider when investing in a fleet of Tesla semis since there are no public mega chargers yet pepsic Co spent close to 2 years slowly building up infrastructure at their Sacramento plant to ensure they could deal with the additional electricity and charging needs while still sticking to their decarbonization goals and reducing Reliance on the grid and they've promised that EV adoption and renewable energy will be a priority when designing any future facilities most of the PepsiCo Fleet is currently running 12 hours a day on the sub 100 mile routes while a few trucks are being used for longer 250 to 450 M Journeys this is a consideration as well for potential customers at least until Tesla builds a mega charger Network across popular routes on Tesla's end they are reportedly planning to to build nine semi- charging stations along an 1800m route from California to Texas but until that comes to fruition it's fair to say that as the industry transitions to Electric semis the distance needed to travel will become a far more important variable than it currently is at the heart of this entire zero emissions equation though is batteries with interest steadily increasing and pre-orders remaining to be fulfilled can Tesla really scale manufacturing to meet demand the I has a huge battery pack and that requires a lot of battery cells to fill them but it's not the only EV Tesla produces the model y was 2023 is highest selling car in the world with 1.23 million units sold this is a 64% increase compared to 2022 the model 3 continues to do well and the polarizing cybertruck pre-orders are already north of 2 million units and if that wasn't enough Elon Musk announced the much awaited $25,000 car now codenamed project Redwood will enter production in 2025 all of these vehicles need battery cells most of which are being manufactured by other companies like Panasonic for Tesla but Tesla also developed their own cell the 4680 which is currently being manufactured at the gigafactory in Texas the new cells are presently being used in the model Y and cybertruck Tesla was hoping to really ramp up production for it as the company wants to use these more advanced and energy dense cells across its product line but the company is running into some production difficulties preventing Tesla from ramping up manufacturing unlike traditional battery cells in EVS the 4680 cell uses a dry coating process on the cathode and anode while this is common in smaller energy storage devices like super capacitors it has not been done for larger batteries like the 4680 outside a laboratory Tesla is the first to do this at a mass scale with speed and they seem to be struggling with the dry coating technique for the cathode which happens to be the most expensive component of the battery but with enough Engineers thrown at the problem it is just a matter of time I mean the cybertruck exists surely they can figure out dry coding right all this to say that in 2024 Tesla will be compelled to prioritize where it uses the batteries it can produce will the cybertruck be given priority with all the press it has generated the refreshed model 3 is now hitting markets with the refreshed model y just around the corner and sales numbers for both continue to be really good on the other hand corporate clients and Fleet operators tend to be loyal customers promising long-term and consistent business but with hardly any mention of the semi at the Tesla 2023 earnings call for the fourth quarter it's not looking great we know that Elon will share the smallest amount of good news with Great Gusto and yet there was no mention of the semi or the 4680 battery cell this leads leads us to believe that they may have to decide which product gets the limited battery packs they can produce a question Tesla will certainly be considering is how many consumer EV battery packs equal to one Tesla semi battery pack for those with pre-orders for the semi they have been patiently waiting for years now and while Tesla does have the better product in the market the competition will eventually catch up and that's without the looming threat of alternative Technologies like hydrogen fuel cells General Motors and Honda are in a joint venture to produce hydrogen fuel cells that will power commercial trucks heavy equipment and passenger vehicles the very first of those fuel cells have gone into production this year while hydrogen remains a niche technology in passenger vehicles the Toyota marai being the only notable product it can be the fuel of choice for long-distance Trucking in a zero emissions future they offer much quicker refueling and with a strategically placed network of filling station they can diminish a lot of range anxiety for Fleet operators and with the Tesla semi- production not yet in full swing potential customers might be tempted to stick with vehicle manufacturers they already have working relationships with all of this means potential Tesla semi delays Rob the company of the opportunity to capture the market when they can but with everything Tesla is doing in the automotive space it seems like they have their handsful one way or another though the commercial Trucking industry is going to see a huge upheaval and Vehicles like the Tesla semi will be at the center of it

Channel: The Tesla Space

Views: 76,414

Keywords: tesla semi, tesla semi update, 2024 tesla semi, tesla semi news, semi ev, tesla semi factory, semi factory, semi gigafactory

Id: Lz4PpMuUYFk

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 11 2024