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Unveiled in November 2017 by the Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Was the new Tesla electric truck. This is Tesla’s unique way of entering the commercial trucking market.
The electric semi-truck Tesla Semi is pushing new boundaries. It will only be available as a completely electric vehicle. Featuring the Tesla autopilot feature to aid truckers with semi-autonomous driving. It’s a great feature for increasing their safety over long truck hauls.
Also, with fewer systems to maintain Musk guarantees, the Tesla truck will last for over 1,000,000 miles. With the capability to run using only 2 out of 4 independent motors.
After the unveiling of Tesla’s first commercial truck. Its entrance into the commercial trucking industry brought in over 2000 early orders. These early truck orders placed by some big names like Walmart and Anheuser-Busch.
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In late 2017, Tesla announced that they have plans to release a fully electric semi-truck. Planning to start the initial production in 2019.
However, the initial production start date has been pushed to late 2020 after Elon Musk tweeted a photo of the Tesla electric semi-truck hauling a full load of Tesla passenger cars where he said: “We’ve been so mired in production & logistics for the past 18 months,” and “Really looking forward to getting the Semi into production.”.
Tesla isn’t alone going to be alone entering the electric semi-truck industry. Almost every other heavy-duty trucking companies are releasing their own electric commercial truck.
Expect to see huge things breaking into the electric commercial trucking. Coming from big brands such as Volvo, Cummins, Volkswagen, Daimler and Nikola Motors.
Tesla hasn’t released too much information yet about the new semi-trailer truck. Yet, they have given us enough information to get a good insight into what to expect from the Tesla Semi.
Class 8 day cab semi-truck model with 4 independent electric motors, one motor in each of the 4 rear wheels.
Torque and horsepower numbers haven’t been officially released. But, the semi features the same motors as the Tesla Model 3.
After dynamometer testing an individual motor. The results came back as 300 horsepower and 550 lb/ft of torque.
Taking the results and doing some simple math. Multiplying by 4 for four motors, we can assume roughly 1200 horsepower and 2200 lb/ft of torque give or take.
Tesla has stated that its electric semi-truck offers badass performance. That even outperforms even the best diesel trucks.
The Tesla Semi can drive up a 5% grade at a max speed of 65 mph. While top-performing diesel trucks can travel at 45 mph max up the same grade.
With an empty load, the commercial electric truck accelerates from 0 – 60 mph in five seconds. When fully loaded at 80,000 lbs, the max weight allowed on US highways it accelerates from 0 – 60 mph in about 20 seconds.
There hasn’t been any official information released about the weight of Tesla’s new electric commercial semi-trailer truck.
However, with information found from people who have driving the semi and drove it onto scales, we can assume that the truck is around 35,000 lbs.
What’s Tesla’s Electric Semi-Trailer Truck Driving Range
In recent interviews with Elon Musk. He stated that the Tesla Semi will be available in 2 different maximum ranges.
It’ll be available in 2 sizes as a smaller battery and a larger battery. The smaller battery provides a driving range of roughly 300 miles. The larger battery will provide about 500 miles on a full battery.
Elon Musk has said that the larger battery has been performing above expectations. He said in performance tests it has seen a range closer to 600 miles.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has always said that autonomous driving is their goal. That will become a reality as soon as there are some new regulations in place. Regulations that allow for autonomous driving on the roads.
The vehicles already manufactured by Tesla get equipped with hardware and sensors. These sensors allow for various autonomous safety features. However, since not yet road legal the autonomous features are currently deactivated. When autonomous driving becomes road legal the features get activated with on-the-air updates.
Autonomous features that are going to be included with the electric Tesla truck.
- forward-collision warning
- stay in your lane assist
- automatic emergency braking
- obstacle recognition
- wireless communication between vehicles to allow platooning
Platooning is a feature in self-driving cars that allows them to follow close together and match speeds.
What Sized Battery Is Tesla Semi Available In?
Not released yet by Tesla is the exact sizing of the batteries that will be in their semi-truck.
However, it’s stated that the power consumption of the Tesla Semi is below 2 kWh per mile.
With this, we can estimate that the battery size in the 300-mile version is roughly 500 – 600 kWh battery pack. The 500-mile version will have roughly 900-1200 kWh battery pack.
How Long Does It Take To Charge The Tesla Semi?
With the recent evolution of the standard Tesla battery chargers. This has brought forth Tesla’s mega chargers.
These mega chargers are very powerful. They are able to provide a battery pack with enough power in 30 minutes to travel roughly 400 miles. The mega chargers expected to charge close to 1000 kWh an hour.
Currently, you can pre-order the Tesla Semi by putting a down payment of $20,000 USD for the standard edition.
You can pre-order the limited edition Founders Series Tesla Semi if you put down the full amount of $200,000 USD.
The expected cost for the release of the 2020 electric semi-truck are:
300 Mile – Starts at $150,000
500 Mile – Starts at $180,000
How long does it take to charge the Tesla Semi?
It takes about 30 minutes to charge the battery to last for 400 miles using Tesla mega chargers. The mega chargers are expected to charge close to 1000 kWh an hour.
How much is the Tesla Semi?
The expected cost for the release of the 2020 Tesla Semi electric semi-truck are:
- 300 Mile – Starts at $150,000
- 500 Mile – Starts at $180,000
How much can the Tesla Semi haul?
A full load for the Telsa Semi is 80,000 lbs.
How many miles can the Tesla Semi go on a single charge?
The Tesla Semi is available in 2 different sized battery models.
The smaller battery model can go 300 miles.
The larger battery model can go 500 miles.
Is the Tesla Semi semi-autonomous?
Yes, the Tesla Semi is semi-autonomous.
Autonomous features that are going to be included with the electric Tesla truck.
- forward-collision warning
- stay in your lane assist
- automatic emergency braking
- obstacle recognition
- wireless communication between vehicles to allow platooning
What is the top speed of the Tesla Semi?
The max speed of the Tesla Semi is roughly 65 mph.
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