September 27, 2017

New Tesla truck could change industry


Renew Economy -  The Tesla Semi is scheduled to be released on October 26. 

Investment banking analysts are already excited, describing the release as “the biggest catalyst in trucking in decades”, in the case of Morgan Stanley, while Deutsche Bank says the release promises to more disruptive than anyone expects, and more quickly.

The chief reason for this is cost. Because Tesla is likely to use several stock electric motors from the Model 3, and several stock battery packs, the Class 8 truck could come in at between $200,00 to $240,000 for low and high range versions.

The significance of this number is the “payback” for US truck fleet operators, via the savings on fuel and maintenance costs. Deutsche Bank estimates it will be less than three years, and will be less than 2 years by the very early 2020’s, which fits nicely into the “sweet spot” of fleet owners’ preferred 18-24 month payback period.

A short driving range (200-300 miles) could be seen as a constraint, but many trucks drive less than that per day, and their operations are well suited for charging/battery swap.

1 comment:

Bill Bolivia said...

Sam: It would be interesting to learn what Friedemann, et al. have to say about what Tesla et al. propose: http://energyskeptic.com/2016/when-trucks-stop-running-so-does-civilization/

Thanks. Bill