E-hauling interest fuels demand for Tesla Semi
SAN FRANCISCO — Big freight haulers want some tryout time with Tesla’s new semi truck.
Orders are trickling in for the sleek vehicle, unveiled in midNovember. On Tuesday, United Parcel Service said it wants 125. Last week, PepsiCo ordered 100. Budweiser parent AnheuserBusch reserved 40. Sysco, the big food distributor, wants 50. Walmart ordered 15.
That’s peanuts compared with the 940,000 heavy-duty semi trucks sold around the world each year, 238,000 of them in the U.S. — and the Tesla truck won’t be available until 2019 at the earliest.
But it’s a strong start for a new entry in the semi market. And it proves that major freight operators, intent on cutting costs without degrading service wherever possible, are taking the Tesla Semi seriously.
The early fleet buyers will begin real-world testing after they buy their trucks. (Tesla said Semi deposits range from $5,000 to $20,000 and are refundable.) Much of the testing is likely to take place in Nevada: Tesla’s battery factory is there, Nevada state law encourages semi truck experimentation on public highways and freight distribution points dot the state in a way that makes a 300- to 500-mile range workable.
For example, Walmart runs a huge distribution centre, one of its largest, in Sparks, Nev., right next door to Tesla’s Gigafactory. Tesla is certain to use the Tesla Semi to deliver batteries to the Fremont auto assembly plant. Rather than “deadhead” back with an empty load, those trucks could stop at the Port of Oakland and carry freight to Walmart in Sparks.
PepsiCo runs a big bottling plant in Las Vegas. Interstate 15 runs 420 miles to Salt Lake City, most of that through Nevada. It provides a real-world proving ground for Tesla’s truck, which the company claims can drive 500 miles before recharging.
Because trucks will roll between distribution points that lie within that range, they can recharge while parked at fleet-managed lots overnight and get maintenance when they need it.
Fleets that work those kinds of routes are ideal for electric truck experimentation, said Greg Hirsch, senior vice president of trucking and logistics firm Daseke in Addison, Texas.
The “expected” cost of a 300mile-range Tesla Semi is $150,000. The 500-miler is $180,000.
A typical price for a new diesel truck is $120,000. The main operating cost is the driver and the diesel fuel. Tesla claims a Tesla Semi owner could save $200,000 in net fuel costs over the vehicle’s lifetime.
Analysts wonder what the Tesla Semi payload will be. Truck battery packs weigh tons, far more than a diesel powertrain. But federal law says a fully loaded truck can’t weigh more than 80,000 pounds.
Because of the truck’s design and the excitement that surrounds just about anything Musk does, the Tesla Semi has received plenty of buzz. But many competitors want what Tesla’s after. They include Nikola, a Salt Lake City company building a fuel-cell electric version of a semi that is expected to hit the market around the same time as the Tesla truck. Companies including Daimler, Volvo and diesel-engine maker Cummins are entering the field.
Chinese company BYD is building electric trucks at its U.S. plant in Lancaster. There’s a Los Angeles startup, Thor, run by two former Stanford grad students, attempting to build and sell an electric semi.
Whether the Tesla Semi sees the light of day depends on how fast Musk can solve some production problems in the here and now. He has to untangle bottlenecks at the Gigafactory, which is key to his plans for the new Model 3 mass-market sedan but also to producing reliable truck batteries at a low cost.