4 ms·

...to visit an important potential customer rather than to carry loads of stuff. Must have been a fun day though for the office guys in the company HQ. Hopeful

...to visit an important potential customer rather than to carry loads of stuff. Must have been a fun day though for the office guys in the company HQ. Hopefully there will be a bit more of this Tesla Truck on Tour going on, pleasing crowds all over the globe. I would go outside to check out a Tesla Truck if one rocked up in town. I would probably skip past F1 cars, fire engines and other novelty performance vehicles to do so. It seems that the Tesla Truck is specifically for hauling big loads on very long distances rather than any other use case, with most truck manufacturers having half a dozen models with untold engine variants for the many other use cases. I wonder if ultimately it does come down to economics, with the Tesla Truck having 'regen' as quite a trick to play. The 'regen' should make descending a lot safer and obviously a lot more 'green' than normal engine braking. I am intrigued as to how that will work out crossing The Rocky Mountains as per the customer visit going on here.

stephengillie 8y ago
Deadheading[0] is probably easy on the battery. Yet even empty, the Supercharger network doesn't reach far enough yet, and apparently the truck had to take up several charging stations at "non-Super" chargers. Do things that don't scale, indeed. > Musk jokingly added that they used a 1,000-mile long extension cord, but he is actually referring a system made of extension cords that they have used to charge Tesla Semi prototypes at Tesla’s regular charging stations. ... People who have witnessed Tesla Semi prototypes charging at Supercharger stations have told Electrek that the system made of extension cords plugs into several Supercharger stalls at the same time and into several charge ports on the truck. Gas semi trucks can take 30 minutes to fuel, and electrics usually take vastly longer than gas vehicles to recharge. Megachargers will be the key to making these trucks actually viable. If they could get recharge times below refuel times, it would be a great advantage. --- > I wonder if ultimately it does come down to economics, with the Tesla Truck having 'regen' as quite a trick to play. The 'regen' should make descending a lot safer and obviously a lot more 'green' than normal engine braking. I am intrigued as to how that will work out crossing The Rocky Mountains as per the customer visit going on here. Regenerative braking stops helping when the battery is full - on my Camry Hybrid, after going down about 600 feet of vertical drop, it actually starts the engine to engage engine braking. Also, there's a limit in the rate of how much velocity energy can be converted to electricity by regeneration, per second. For instance, slowing from 65 MPH to 64 can take over a second using only regenerative brakes. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mileage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mileage
- cptskippy 8y ago
  > it actually starts the engine to engage engine braking. The engine isn't firing is it? Engine braking doesn't require the cylinders to fire.
- djrogers 8y ago
  > apparently the truck had to take up several charging stations at "non-Super" chargers. No, these were multiple connections to Tesla Superchargers - not ‘regular’ chargers. This is necessary because the Tesla Hyperchargers that are being developed to quickly charge the Semis are not deployed anywhere yet.
  - stephengillie 8y ago
    How many "non-Super" chargers does a single truck take? Does it take up the entire station? How soon are the Megachargers planned?
    - Latteland 8y ago
      they have only announced them they will build them when the tracks are out. they have continually built their superchargers, keeping up with demand. this year with their incredible increase in vehicle production for the model 3 they have also increased their rate of new superchargers. See supercharge.info for some details. But it will still be hard for them to keep up with new vehicle production.
      - stephengillie 8y ago
        So how will they charge the numerous trucks they've sold before the full Megacharger network is available? Will a truck roll into a Supercharger and take up half the chargers?
        jakobegger 8y ago
        Maybe early adopters will set up their own charging infrastructure? Seams feasible if you limit it to few routes.

stephengillie 8y ago

Deadheading[0] is probably easy on the battery. Yet even empty, the Supercharger network doesn't reach far enough yet, and apparently the truck had to take up several charging stations at "non-Super" chargers. Do things that don't scale, indeed. > Musk jokingly added that they used a 1,000-mile long extension cord, but he is actually referring a system made of extension cords that they have used to charge Tesla Semi prototypes at Tesla’s regular charging stations. ... People who have witnessed Tesla Semi prototypes charging at Supercharger stations have told Electrek that the system made of extension cords plugs into several Supercharger stalls at the same time and into several charge ports on the truck. Gas semi trucks can take 30 minutes to fuel, and electrics usually take vastly longer than gas vehicles to recharge. Megachargers will be the key to making these trucks actually viable. If they could get recharge times below refuel times, it would be a great advantage. --- > I wonder if ultimately it does come down to economics, with the Tesla Truck having 'regen' as quite a trick to play. The 'regen' should make descending a lot safer and obviously a lot more 'green' than normal engine braking. I am intrigued as to how that will work out crossing The Rocky Mountains as per the customer visit going on here. Regenerative braking stops helping when the battery is full - on my Camry Hybrid, after going down about 600 feet of vertical drop, it actually starts the engine to engage engine braking. Also, there's a limit in the rate of how much velocity energy can be converted to electricity by regeneration, per second. For instance, slowing from 65 MPH to 64 can take over a second using only regenerative brakes. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mileage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mileage

cptskippy 8y ago
> it actually starts the engine to engage engine braking. The engine isn't firing is it? Engine braking doesn't require the cylinders to fire.
djrogers 8y ago
> apparently the truck had to take up several charging stations at "non-Super" chargers. No, these were multiple connections to Tesla Superchargers - not ‘regular’ chargers. This is necessary because the Tesla Hyperchargers that are being developed to quickly charge the Semis are not deployed anywhere yet.
- stephengillie 8y ago
  How many "non-Super" chargers does a single truck take? Does it take up the entire station? How soon are the Megachargers planned?
  - Latteland 8y ago
    they have only announced them they will build them when the tracks are out. they have continually built their superchargers, keeping up with demand. this year with their incredible increase in vehicle production for the model 3 they have also increased their rate of new superchargers. See supercharge.info for some details. But it will still be hard for them to keep up with new vehicle production.
    - stephengillie 8y ago
      So how will they charge the numerous trucks they've sold before the full Megacharger network is available? Will a truck roll into a Supercharger and take up half the chargers?
      - jakobegger 8y ago
        Maybe early adopters will set up their own charging infrastructure? Seams feasible if you limit it to few routes.