Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The much awaited and much delayed TeslaSemi has been out on the streets for
the better part of a year nowand with its first customer, Pepsi Coo,
regularly using its fleet for routes aslong as four hundred and fifty miles,
this means we are closer than everto answering a very important question,
can an electric semi actually make realworld sense? Battery electric vehicles have been
(00:26):
a hugely significant move toward reducing greenhousegas emissions from the transportation sector for a
cleaner and greener future. Cars likethe Tesla Model three and Model Y have
now made it to the top tenbest selling cars in the world, indicating
the move to zero emissions passenger vehicleshas gathered momentum and is well and truly
(00:47):
underway. But consumer vehicles aren't theonly polluters on the road. Larger commercial
transport vehicles have mostly slipped under theradar, but their size and weight makes
them far worse on fuel economy,and that's not a good thing for our
greener intentions for the environment. Soit makes sense that after the revolution Tesla
single handedly kicked off with electric cars, they now offer the full electric Tesla
(01:11):
Semi for commercial application, and withthe first batch of trucks now loose on
the streets, it begs the question, will the Tesla Semi revolutionize the trucking
industry toward a cleaner and greener futureor is it just a marketing gimmick.
Whether you call them semis, bigrigs or eighteen wheelers, there's no denying
how important they are to industry.In the United States alone, around four
(01:36):
million semis drive a combined four hundredbillion miles yes with a B every year.
They move about seventy two percent ofall freight, accounting for over eight
hundred billion US dollars yes with aB again in gross freight revenue. They
are clearly vital to any nation's industry, but there is a dark side to
(01:57):
this impressive feat. While doing allof the aforementioned transport, they also burn
over forty billion gallons combined in fossilfuels annually to make all these trips,
and even though they are just onepercent of vehicles on the road, they
make up twenty percent of total vehicleemissions. And thus began Tesla's endeavor to
(02:20):
provide a solution for this sector ofthe transport industry, Developing a fully electric
Tesla Semi poses a set of uniquechallenges, though, and in this video
we shall explore them one at atime. Let's start with the battery.
While electric motors are a fraction ofthe weight of their combustion engine counterparts,
batteries ensure electric vehicles remain really,really heavy. For example, the Ford
(02:43):
F one to fifty pickup truck weighsfour to five thousand pounds, depending on
its variant. On the other hand, the Tesla Model S, a much
smaller family sedan, comes in atover four and a half thousand pounds.
Thus, for a semi designed tohaul heavy cargo, this seems like an
in surmountable problem, but Tesla's engineeringdepartment dug deep for a solution. United
(03:05):
States regulation dictates that a fully loadedsemi with the trailer cannot weigh more than
eighty thousand pounds. Fortunately, thisweight limit is increased to eighty two thousand
pounds for electric semis. That beingsaid, if your battery and cab weigh
a lot, it means you cancarry far less cargo. And carrying far
less cargo is the opposite of whatis needed. So how heavy is the
(03:28):
battery? Well, Tesla won't tellus, but based on Elon Musk's tweets
and very educated guesses, it isroughly ten thousand pounds. Factor in the
weight of the cab and motors,the Tesla Semi is roughly six to eight
thousand pounds heavier than a comparative dieselsemi, but since regulation allows it to
weigh two thousand pounds more, itscargo carrying capacity is reduced by only six
(03:51):
to eight thousand pounds compared to itsfossil fueled counterparts. Filled to the brim,
the Tesla Semi should be able tohaul about forty four thousand pounds of
cargo, which is almost ten thousandpounds lower than the maximum carrying capacity of
most Class eight diesel powered semis.That seems like a massive disadvantage until you
(04:12):
look closer at more relevant data.The Transportation Energy Data Book provides us with
the average cargo weights semis are hauling, and the Tesla Semi should be able
to carry almost ninety percent of loads. According to another Department of Transportation report
providing data from weigh in stations,average gross vehicle weights for semis range from
fifty four to fifty nine thousand pounds, well within the Tesla Semi's capacity.
(04:38):
All things considered, in real worldusage, the Tesla Semis weight penalty with
the heavy battery does not have ahugely negative impact. The bigger concern for
most users, though, is usablerange. Tesla, in its presentation claims
the Semi has a five hundred milerange, but that might have been a
tad optimistic. It has an incrediblylow drag coefficient of zero point three six
(05:01):
and uses a trimotor powertrain with onehighway drive unit and two acceleration drive units.
So when cruising down the highway,the two acceleration drive units automatically disconnect,
effectively making the Semi use only onemotor, the highway drive unit.
When required to get back up tospeed, the two acceleration drive units instantly
re engage. This is similar tocylinder deactivation technology that is prevalent in modern
(05:28):
combustion engine vehicles, and it justmakes the Semi far more efficient as it
reduces its energy consumption. Another keyconsideration in the Semi's efficiency is regenerative braking.
While regenerative braking in electric vehicles canbe a whole video in itself,
it's the process of using the electricmotor instead of the brakes to slow down
the vehicle, with the resulting kineticenergy being captured by the motor and fed
(05:53):
back to the battery pack. Inshort, regenerative braking ads range, and
since it's a function of kinetic energy, the heavier the vehicle, the more
range it actually adds. For avehicle designed to carry loads, this is
an advantage ensuring the Semi can getaway with a slightly smaller and thus lighter
battery pack. It's also a greatreminder that for electric vehicles, range is
(06:16):
more than just the battery pack andmotor. It also includes software and regenerative
functions, and that is a fundamentalshift in vehicle technology and how we approach
efficiency. But if you pay closeattention to the five hundred mile test drive
video that Tesla released, the Semispends a very short amount of time at
sixty miles per hour, with mostof the drive around fifty miles per hour,
(06:41):
and with increased speed at load,the energy consumption is going to be
far greater. A more realistic rangewould be somewhere around three hundred and fifty
miles at highway speeds of sixty toseventy miles per hour of course, regenerative
breaking does add range, and itis strongest while coming downhill, but the
Tesla Semi also expends additional energy goinguphill, and based on the graphs Tesla
(07:04):
showed in the video, the extraenergy spent going uphill is recovered going downhill.
While this might seem disappointing, it'sactually quite an achievement. Not losing
any range for going uphill so longas you return to the same elevation you
started from. That's a very reassuringthought for fleet operators as far as range
(07:24):
goes, trucking data tells us eightypercent of routes for semis are less than
two hundred and fifty miles, Sowhile the Tesla Semi might not be ideal
for that last twenty percent of longhaul routes, it still makes sense for
the vast majority of use case scenarios. The last piece of this puzzle is
the charging infrastructure. With an eighthundred and fifty to nine hundred kilowatt hour
(07:46):
battery, a standard Tesla supercharger justwon't cut it. Charging such a large
battery would take too long for avehicle that needs to be on the road
every day. Instead, a newseven hundred and fifty. The kilawat Mega
charger has been developed that can chargethese massive batteries seventy percent in an astonishing
(08:07):
thirty minutes, but it's not assimple as pumping in way more energy.
Tesla also had to develop the newV four cable for the charger. It
can flow up to one megawatt ofenergy and has special liquid cooled cables running
through it to ensure things don't gettoo hot. All of this makes the
Tesla semi proposition a far more usefulone, so useful that Tesla secured an
(08:28):
order for one hundred semis from PepsiCo. The food and beverage giant aims to
reduce its emissions by seventy five percentby twenty thirty and one hundred percent by
twenty forty, making it the perfectcustomer. And even though the first Tesla
semis were to be delivered in twentynineteen, it was December twenty twenty two
when the first batch of twenty onetrucks were handed over to PepsiCo. They
(08:52):
have now been in operation for thebetter part of a year at PepsiCo's Sacramento
Bottling and Distribution center, and basedon a video released recently have been performing
better than expected. The Tesla fleetis running around twelve hours daily, delivering
products between eight to twelve destinations ona sub one hundred mile route. Three
trucks in the fleet are being usedfor longer hauls in the two hundred and
(09:15):
fifty to four hundred and fifty milerange, which is very impressive. While
PepsiCo hasn't released more details, itwould be interesting to see what average speed
and cargo capacity the long haul fleetis running at to achieve that four hundred
plus mile range. What they havetold us though, is that for the
past few months, the fleet hasachieved an efficiency of one point seven kilowatt
(09:37):
hours per mile, which is theequivalent of nineteen point eight miles per gallon.
How does that stack up to ClassA diesel semis Well, any truck
manufactured after twenty fourteen is legally requiredin the United States to have a fuel
economy of at least seven point twomiles per gallon. Some of the most
fuel efficient semis, like the freightlineor Cascadia of a LIE and the Peterbilt
(10:01):
five to seventy, hover around theten miles per gallon figure. That makes
the Tesla semi almost twice as energyefficient. A big player like Pepsiico stepping
up and deploying a fleet of Teslasemis is proof of concept that electric semis
can be a part of our freighttransportation equation. And now that we have
real world data that they are muchmore efficient than their diesel counterpart, it's
(10:26):
starting to make a lot of sense. And that's before you factor in lower
maintenance costs that are a happy sideeffect of electric vehicles. This is the
big budget push that we needed toshake up the industry, and it's gotten
off to a splendid start. Sowhat can we expect going forward? With
governments bringing the full weight of legislationto encourage electric vehicle adoption, it's safe
(10:48):
to expect the Tesla Semi won't bethe last we see of electric big rigs.
Major vehicle manufacturers already have a fewofferings in the market, but with
the headstart Tesla has in battery technology, they have some catching up to do.
The Volvo VNR Electric Freightliner E Cascadiaand Peterbilt Model five seven nine EV
(11:09):
all have a sub three hundred mileclaimed range and charge up to three times
slower than the Tesla. That beingsaid, fleet operators tend to insist on
pilot purchases that extend into years beforecommitting to purchasing at scale, but with
regulations snapping at their heels, theymight be forced to jump into it quicker,
and at that point they will likelystick to manufacturers they already have trust
(11:33):
and working relationships with, as opposedto newcomers like Tesla, and that makes
this first batch of Tesla semis withPepsiCo even more important. You can be
certain that fleet operators and companies arepaying very close attention and following every single
update to decide whether this is theone for them. Another key change we
can expect to see is charging infrastructurebecoming a fundamental component of planning when purchasing
(11:58):
electric semi, since there is norefueling at gas stations anymore and charging such
a large battery pack takes a lotof power. PepsiCo says it took them
two years to incorporate all they neededinto their Sacramento plant and it's going to
be a priority for them moving forward. On Tesla's end, they are reportedly
planning to build nine semi truck chargingstations along an eighteen hundred mile route from
(12:22):
California to Texas, potentially doing forthe semi what the supercharger network did for
electric cars. So is this thedeath blow to diesel class eight semis then,
well not yet. The Tesla ismuch more efficient and the lack of
a transmission makes driving it a farmore relaxing job. But there are some
tasks its combustion engine counterparts can dothat Tesla can't. While the Tesla Semi's
(12:46):
five hundred mile range is impressive,it pales in comparison to some diesel semis
with a range of around two thousandmiles thanks to much larger fuel tanks.
And while legislation prevents drivers from beingbehind the wheel for longer than eleven hours,
they can have teams of drivers ensuringonce the truck departs, it can
drive non stop to its destination.Besides, there is the question of charging
(13:11):
infrastructure, which is vital to thesuccess of electric semis. But change is
never comfortable or easy, and Teslahas made a bold but warranted move in
this space, and they are onceagain in a position to potentially revolutionize an
industry that isn't quick to change.With multiple companies having placed orders for Tesla
semis and production scheduled to ramp upby late twenty twenty four, you might
(13:35):
be seeing a lot more of thesesilent land barges on the road soon
The much awaited and much delayed TeslaSemi has been out on the streets for
the better part of a year nowand with its first customer, Pepsi Coo,
regularly using its fleet for routes aslong as four hundred and fifty miles,
this means we are closer than everto answering a very important question,
can an electric semi actually make realworld sense? Battery electric vehicles have been
(00:26):
a hugely significant move toward reducing greenhousegas emissions from the transportation sector for a
cleaner and greener future. Cars likethe Tesla Model three and Model Y have
now made it to the top tenbest selling cars in the world, indicating
the move to zero emissions passenger vehicleshas gathered momentum and is well and truly
(00:47):
underway. But consumer vehicles aren't theonly polluters on the road. Larger commercial
transport vehicles have mostly slipped under theradar, but their size and weight makes
them far worse on fuel economy,and that's not a good thing for our
greener intentions for the environment. Soit makes sense that after the revolution Tesla
single handedly kicked off with electric cars, they now offer the full electric Tesla
(01:11):
Semi for commercial application, and withthe first batch of trucks now loose on
the streets, it begs the question, will the Tesla Semi revolutionize the trucking
industry toward a cleaner and greener futureor is it just a marketing gimmick.
Whether you call them semis, bigrigs or eighteen wheelers, there's no denying
how important they are to industry.In the United States alone, around four
(01:36):
million semis drive a combined four hundredbillion miles yes with a B every year.
They move about seventy two percent ofall freight, accounting for over eight
hundred billion US dollars yes with aB again in gross freight revenue. They
are clearly vital to any nation's industry, but there is a dark side to
(01:57):
this impressive feat. While doing allof the aforementioned transport, they also burn
over forty billion gallons combined in fossilfuels annually to make all these trips,
and even though they are just onepercent of vehicles on the road, they
make up twenty percent of total vehicleemissions. And thus began Tesla's endeavor to
(02:20):
provide a solution for this sector ofthe transport industry, Developing a fully electric
Tesla Semi poses a set of uniquechallenges, though, and in this video
we shall explore them one at atime. Let's start with the battery.
While electric motors are a fraction ofthe weight of their combustion engine counterparts,
batteries ensure electric vehicles remain really,really heavy. For example, the Ford
(02:43):
F one to fifty pickup truck weighsfour to five thousand pounds, depending on
its variant. On the other hand, the Tesla Model S, a much
smaller family sedan, comes in atover four and a half thousand pounds.
Thus, for a semi designed tohaul heavy cargo, this seems like an
in surmountable problem, but Tesla's engineeringdepartment dug deep for a solution. United
(03:05):
States regulation dictates that a fully loadedsemi with the trailer cannot weigh more than
eighty thousand pounds. Fortunately, thisweight limit is increased to eighty two thousand
pounds for electric semis. That beingsaid, if your battery and cab weigh
a lot, it means you cancarry far less cargo. And carrying far
less cargo is the opposite of whatis needed. So how heavy is the
(03:28):
battery? Well, Tesla won't tellus, but based on Elon Musk's tweets
and very educated guesses, it isroughly ten thousand pounds. Factor in the
weight of the cab and motors,the Tesla Semi is roughly six to eight
thousand pounds heavier than a comparative dieselsemi, but since regulation allows it to
weigh two thousand pounds more, itscargo carrying capacity is reduced by only six
(03:51):
to eight thousand pounds compared to itsfossil fueled counterparts. Filled to the brim,
the Tesla Semi should be able tohaul about forty four thousand pounds of
cargo, which is almost ten thousandpounds lower than the maximum carrying capacity of
most Class eight diesel powered semis.That seems like a massive disadvantage until you
(04:12):
look closer at more relevant data.The Transportation Energy Data Book provides us with
the average cargo weights semis are hauling, and the Tesla Semi should be able
to carry almost ninety percent of loads. According to another Department of Transportation report
providing data from weigh in stations,average gross vehicle weights for semis range from
fifty four to fifty nine thousand pounds, well within the Tesla Semi's capacity.
(04:38):
All things considered, in real worldusage, the Tesla Semis weight penalty with
the heavy battery does not have ahugely negative impact. The bigger concern for
most users, though, is usablerange. Tesla, in its presentation claims
the Semi has a five hundred milerange, but that might have been a
tad optimistic. It has an incrediblylow drag coefficient of zero point three six
(05:01):
and uses a trimotor powertrain with onehighway drive unit and two acceleration drive units.
So when cruising down the highway,the two acceleration drive units automatically disconnect,
effectively making the Semi use only onemotor, the highway drive unit.
When required to get back up tospeed, the two acceleration drive units instantly
re engage. This is similar tocylinder deactivation technology that is prevalent in modern
(05:28):
combustion engine vehicles, and it justmakes the Semi far more efficient as it
reduces its energy consumption. Another keyconsideration in the Semi's efficiency is regenerative braking.
While regenerative braking in electric vehicles canbe a whole video in itself,
it's the process of using the electricmotor instead of the brakes to slow down
the vehicle, with the resulting kineticenergy being captured by the motor and fed
(05:53):
back to the battery pack. Inshort, regenerative braking ads range, and
since it's a function of kinetic energy, the heavier the vehicle, the more
range it actually adds. For avehicle designed to carry loads, this is
an advantage ensuring the Semi can getaway with a slightly smaller and thus lighter
battery pack. It's also a greatreminder that for electric vehicles, range is
(06:16):
more than just the battery pack andmotor. It also includes software and regenerative
functions, and that is a fundamentalshift in vehicle technology and how we approach
efficiency. But if you pay closeattention to the five hundred mile test drive
video that Tesla released, the Semispends a very short amount of time at
sixty miles per hour, with mostof the drive around fifty miles per hour,
(06:41):
and with increased speed at load,the energy consumption is going to be
far greater. A more realistic rangewould be somewhere around three hundred and fifty
miles at highway speeds of sixty toseventy miles per hour of course, regenerative
breaking does add range, and itis strongest while coming downhill, but the
Tesla Semi also expends additional energy goinguphill, and based on the graphs Tesla
(07:04):
showed in the video, the extraenergy spent going uphill is recovered going downhill.
While this might seem disappointing, it'sactually quite an achievement. Not losing
any range for going uphill so longas you return to the same elevation you
started from. That's a very reassuringthought for fleet operators as far as range
(07:24):
goes, trucking data tells us eightypercent of routes for semis are less than
two hundred and fifty miles, Sowhile the Tesla Semi might not be ideal
for that last twenty percent of longhaul routes, it still makes sense for
the vast majority of use case scenarios. The last piece of this puzzle is
the charging infrastructure. With an eighthundred and fifty to nine hundred kilowatt hour
(07:46):
battery, a standard Tesla supercharger justwon't cut it. Charging such a large
battery would take too long for avehicle that needs to be on the road
every day. Instead, a newseven hundred and fifty. The kilawat Mega
charger has been developed that can chargethese massive batteries seventy percent in an astonishing
(08:07):
thirty minutes, but it's not assimple as pumping in way more energy.
Tesla also had to develop the newV four cable for the charger. It
can flow up to one megawatt ofenergy and has special liquid cooled cables running
through it to ensure things don't gettoo hot. All of this makes the
Tesla semi proposition a far more usefulone, so useful that Tesla secured an
(08:28):
order for one hundred semis from PepsiCo. The food and beverage giant aims to
reduce its emissions by seventy five percentby twenty thirty and one hundred percent by
twenty forty, making it the perfectcustomer. And even though the first Tesla
semis were to be delivered in twentynineteen, it was December twenty twenty two
when the first batch of twenty onetrucks were handed over to PepsiCo. They
(08:52):
have now been in operation for thebetter part of a year at PepsiCo's Sacramento
Bottling and Distribution center, and basedon a video released recently have been performing
better than expected. The Tesla fleetis running around twelve hours daily, delivering
products between eight to twelve destinations ona sub one hundred mile route. Three
trucks in the fleet are being usedfor longer hauls in the two hundred and
(09:15):
fifty to four hundred and fifty milerange, which is very impressive. While
PepsiCo hasn't released more details, itwould be interesting to see what average speed
and cargo capacity the long haul fleetis running at to achieve that four hundred
plus mile range. What they havetold us though, is that for the
past few months, the fleet hasachieved an efficiency of one point seven kilowatt
(09:37):
hours per mile, which is theequivalent of nineteen point eight miles per gallon.
How does that stack up to ClassA diesel semis Well, any truck
manufactured after twenty fourteen is legally requiredin the United States to have a fuel
economy of at least seven point twomiles per gallon. Some of the most
fuel efficient semis, like the freightlineor Cascadia of a LIE and the Peterbilt
(10:01):
five to seventy, hover around theten miles per gallon figure. That makes
the Tesla semi almost twice as energyefficient. A big player like Pepsiico stepping
up and deploying a fleet of Teslasemis is proof of concept that electric semis
can be a part of our freighttransportation equation. And now that we have
real world data that they are muchmore efficient than their diesel counterpart, it's
(10:26):
starting to make a lot of sense. And that's before you factor in lower
maintenance costs that are a happy sideeffect of electric vehicles. This is the
big budget push that we needed toshake up the industry, and it's gotten
off to a splendid start. Sowhat can we expect going forward? With
governments bringing the full weight of legislationto encourage electric vehicle adoption, it's safe
(10:48):
to expect the Tesla Semi won't bethe last we see of electric big rigs.
Major vehicle manufacturers already have a fewofferings in the market, but with
the headstart Tesla has in battery technology, they have some catching up to do.
The Volvo VNR Electric Freightliner E Cascadiaand Peterbilt Model five seven nine EV
(11:09):
all have a sub three hundred mileclaimed range and charge up to three times
slower than the Tesla. That beingsaid, fleet operators tend to insist on
pilot purchases that extend into years beforecommitting to purchasing at scale, but with
regulations snapping at their heels, theymight be forced to jump into it quicker,
and at that point they will likelystick to manufacturers they already have trust
(11:33):
and working relationships with, as opposedto newcomers like Tesla, and that makes
this first batch of Tesla semis withPepsiCo even more important. You can be
certain that fleet operators and companies arepaying very close attention and following every single
update to decide whether this is theone for them. Another key change we
can expect to see is charging infrastructurebecoming a fundamental component of planning when purchasing
(11:58):
electric semi, since there is norefueling at gas stations anymore and charging such
a large battery pack takes a lotof power. PepsiCo says it took them
two years to incorporate all they neededinto their Sacramento plant and it's going to
be a priority for them moving forward. On Tesla's end, they are reportedly
planning to build nine semi truck chargingstations along an eighteen hundred mile route from
(12:22):
California to Texas, potentially doing forthe semi what the supercharger network did for
electric cars. So is this thedeath blow to diesel class eight semis then,
well not yet. The Tesla ismuch more efficient and the lack of
a transmission makes driving it a farmore relaxing job. But there are some
tasks its combustion engine counterparts can dothat Tesla can't. While the Tesla Semi's
(12:46):
five hundred mile range is impressive,it pales in comparison to some diesel semis
with a range of around two thousandmiles thanks to much larger fuel tanks.
And while legislation prevents drivers from beingbehind the wheel for longer than eleven hours,
they can have teams of drivers ensuringonce the truck departs, it can
drive non stop to its destination.Besides, there is the question of charging
(13:11):
infrastructure, which is vital to thesuccess of electric semis. But change is
never comfortable or easy, and Teslahas made a bold but warranted move in
this space, and they are onceagain in a position to potentially revolutionize an
industry that isn't quick to change.With multiple companies having placed orders for Tesla
semis and production scheduled to ramp upby late twenty twenty four, you might
(13:35):
be seeing a lot more of thesesilent land barges on the road soon
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