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How will you make a battery-powered semi? Tesla claimed to have one then got super-quiet about it. Do the calculation for joules of power to move a fully-loade

by hajile 4y ago

How will you make a battery-powered semi? Tesla claimed to have one then got super-quiet about it. Do the calculation for joules of power to move a fully-loaded tractor-trailer. Do a joule/kg calculation for modern batteries and calculate the series you get due to the rocket fuel problem (it takes a lot of battery to haul your battery). You find that the towing capacity of that semi is miniscule vs an ICE engine. Same problem applies to heavy equipment (even if you completely dodge the issue that heavy equipment works out where stable power usually isn't readily available). Hydrogen offers a solution to this that batteries can't offer.

danaris 4y ago
"Tesla has failed to produce a battery EV semi truck" is not strong evidence that it is impossible to produce one. Tesla has been having quite a bit of trouble in recent years, as its not-a-founder-but-wants-you-to-think-he-is makes promises reality can't deliver. Now, it may be that you're right—that battery-powered semi trucks are unfeasible to build. But a) this doesn't mean we should go all-in on hydrogen, either, and b) maybe what this really means is that we need to eliminate the semi truck as a common feature of our roads, and do most of our cross-country shipping by rail, which is massively more efficient no matter what means you use to power it. (Yes, that requires more investment in our rail infrastructure, but that would also be a very good thing on several levels.)
- Karrot_Kream 4y ago
  According to [1] US freight rail already transports 40% of long-haul freight and is the plurality of freight transport. [1]: https://www.aar.org/facts-figures https://www.aar.org/facts-figures a biased source probably
  - hodgesrm 4y ago
    You really notice the difference when you go to a country like Germany, which uses a lot more trucks to haul freight. The rail percentage is about 19% currently. [0] The Autobahn is packed with trucks. The percentage of rail traffic is lower in other EU countries apparently. [0] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights/bold-moves-to-boost-european-rail-freight https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-inf...
grey-area 4y ago
The EV semi is in testing with real loads and works fine.
- thworp 4y ago
  Yes it works with less than half of the 20-25 tons of cargo that a regular semi transports.
foobazgt 4y ago
I don't know if the specs are public, but from what people have seen, it seems to perform mostly as advertised. Frito Lay is using them in earnest and happy with the results so far: https://insideevs.com/news/632312/tesla-semi-megacharger-at-frito-lay-modesto/ https://insideevs.com/news/632312/tesla-semi-megacharger-at-...

by hajile 4y ago

danaris 4y ago

"Tesla has failed to produce a battery EV semi truck" is not strong evidence that it is impossible to produce one. Tesla has been having quite a bit of trouble in recent years, as its not-a-founder-but-wants-you-to-think-he-is makes promises reality can't deliver. Now, it may be that you're right—that battery-powered semi trucks are unfeasible to build. But a) this doesn't mean we should go all-in on hydrogen, either, and b) maybe what this really means is that we need to eliminate the semi truck as a common feature of our roads, and do most of our cross-country shipping by rail, which is massively more efficient no matter what means you use to power it. (Yes, that requires more investment in our rail infrastructure, but that would also be a very good thing on several levels.)

Karrot_Kream 4y ago
According to [1] US freight rail already transports 40% of long-haul freight and is the plurality of freight transport. [1]: https://www.aar.org/facts-figures https://www.aar.org/facts-figures a biased source probably
- hodgesrm 4y ago
  You really notice the difference when you go to a country like Germany, which uses a lot more trucks to haul freight. The rail percentage is about 19% currently. [0] The Autobahn is packed with trucks. The percentage of rail traffic is lower in other EU countries apparently. [0] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights/bold-moves-to-boost-european-rail-freight https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-inf...

grey-area 4y ago

The EV semi is in testing with real loads and works fine.

thworp 4y ago
Yes it works with less than half of the 20-25 tons of cargo that a regular semi transports.

foobazgt 4y ago

I don't know if the specs are public, but from what people have seen, it seems to perform mostly as advertised. Frito Lay is using them in earnest and happy with the results so far: https://insideevs.com/news/632312/tesla-semi-megacharger-at-frito-lay-modesto/ https://insideevs.com/news/632312/tesla-semi-megacharger-at-...