‘Production hell’ for Tesla’s truck, Roadster
and Roadster “offered no new nuggets of information to ease these investor con
When Musk launched the Model 3 — the company was anticipating a production rate of 20,000 Model 3s a month by the end of December. In the three months through September, though, Tesla produced only 260 Model 3s — about three cars a day.
Some other analysts, focused on the truck, were more positive. Adam Jonas at Morgan Stanley, who’s been bullish on Tesla, told clients the event was “even more
Truck exceeds expectations
The specs for the new Semi “exceeded our Rusch said in a note to investors.
Industry leaders in the electric vehicle market were skeptical of the 500-mile range. With today’s technology, achieving that would require batteries so heavy and expensive as to render the truck unmarketable.
Maybe Musk has some amazing innovation up his sleeve, said Ryan Poppel, chief executive of electric bus start-up Proterra, which has a factory in City of Industry. said, the Tesla truck “is going to send shock
Ian Wright, founder and chief executive of electric truck powertrain maker Wrightspeed, was scratching his head on the range claim as well. “It’s going to make a tough business where low cost is king.
Wal- Mart Stores Inc. told CNBC on Friday the other week that it plans to test Tesla’s electric truck and that it has preordered 15 of them. But it will take large orders from huge shipping companies to make the Tesla Semi a success, Poppel said.
- agers will get really excited, but they won’t in heavy vehicles take two to three years, he said. “What will move this market is when you see Penske, Ryder and Wal-Mart
Competition from truck makers
Other truck makers, including International, Volvo, Nikola and Mercedes-Benz are, like Tesla, also developing electric trucks with self-driving capabilities.
mid-teens, more than twice as much as than for cars. Last year, 249,952 heavy-duty trucks were sold in North America. But the heavy truck business is slow-growing overall — only about 0.6 percent a year, a to continue until 2026.
Because electric trucks are starting from a small base of less than 1 percent of the total truck market, the segment’s growth rate will be faster. Still, said Antti Lindstrom of IHS Markit, electric penetration of the big-rig market “isn’t going to be very even then, it will be very limited compared
Stella Li, president of China- owned electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Motors Inc. — which builds heavy trucks and transit buses in Lancaster — was dismis- sive of Tesla’s threat to the industry. “Tesla “Our truck teams know exactly what the
But Li acknowledged the buzz surrounding Tesla and Musk “serves as a marketing
Before Musk’s night of theatrics, reporters were led down a spotlighted outdoor a large room that contained four big rigs: two Teslas, a Freightliner Cascadia, and an International. The point was to highlight Tesla’s dramatic departure from traditional truck design.
No diesel engine under the hood means plenty of room in the cab. Getting in and out is more like climbing stairs than ascending a step ladder. A tall man can comfortably stand in the Tesla cab. The steering wheel is center mounted, with a touch screen on either side. The dashboard is stark, with few gauges, buttons, stalks or knobs.
The Freightliner and the International cabs were low-ceilinged, crowded and, by comparison, claustrophobic.
Tesla is touting greater safety, promising that the truck’s sensors will be able to “detect instability and react with positive or negative torque to each wheel while - cording to a company handout said.
Musk said.
- (640-kilometer) range in 30 minutes. No detail on the megachargers was provided, except that they will be solar-powered.
Surround cameras minimize blind spots, Tesla said. The trucks will be equipped with enhanced autopilot and other self-drive and safety features such as automatic emergency braking, automatic lane keeping and lane departure warning.
Although Tesla set the car industry cool-looking high-performance electric cars, the company is a fast follower in electric trucks. Most traditional truck makers — including Peterbilt, Kenworth and Mercedes Benz — are developing battery or fuel-cell powered models. But most of the electric big rigs coming on the market will be built for short-haul routes, such as moving freight from an ocean port to a distribution center.
Michael Harley of Kelley Blue Book questions Tesla’s strategic direction in targeting long-haul trucks. “A more appropriate target … would be the short-haul,
Platooning could change that equation. In a truck platoon, several big rigs pack up close enough together to be drawn along by the aerodynamic draft of the vehicle ahead, like cyclists lined up in a bike race. The distance between trucks is maintained by sensors and computers. That would extend the range of the batteries in the following trucks. Platooning is legal in eight states, including Michigan, Texas and Nevada, though not yet in California. Limited testing is allowed in Florida and Utah. Human drivers are required in each truck.
Tesla may have one enthusiastic user locked up: Company watchers would not be surprised if Musk starts using the Tesla Semi to ship batteries 240 miles (384 kilometers) from Nevada to the Fremont assembly plant.