Tesla Semi Truck

[Texasdude74]

If the technology has no hope of replacing current technology then what’s the point? It takes 1.6Mwatts to charge the thing, which is the equivalent of 300 average households. If all 3.5 million trucks in the nation were electric we would be talking about a 5600 Gigawatt load. Google says the combined total of all US power plants is 1040 Gigawatts. Throw in a couple hundred million electric cars and now the US power demand exceeds the worlds power capacity. Unless we’re willing to go on an unprecedented power plant building spree, total electrification of the transportation industry isn’t even theoretically possible.

[Texasdude74]

(11-21-2017 )Rawze Wrote:  - Besides the Drug-Addict announcer that was high on something what he was giving the presentation, I think they missed one HUGE important thing in its design...

- The ability to stop somewhere and simply swap power-packs on the fly. Why have to wait for charging when you can just swap it out at a re-fill station and go again?. -- Or am I the only one who has this kind of Duuuh!, why did they not consider that ... thinking?

I’ve been to Tesla more than a few times and they did consider battery swapping initially as well as mounting the batteries under the trailer. The battery pack is 800kwh, which I don’t feel is enough, but it all ready weighs roughly 18klbs. Swapping quickly would be a bitch and often trucks and trailers are owned by different companies. So they elected to go the 800v 1.6Mwatt Charger route. However, for the charger to work, it requires four Tesla giant batteries that suck power from the grid at a slower pace. Meaning not only can trucks not charge at the same time, but it takes an hour or two before another truck can charge. 1.6Mwatts is that much juice.

[JMBT]

I’ll believe it is a viable alternative when I see it on the highway in a real application. On top of that who will be able to afford it? Definitely not the one truck O/O. Really??... won’t break down for a million miles....blow me! You know that isn’t going to happen. What about the salt and snow in the northwest in the winter? It is hard to keep a hundred chicken lights going, let alone an electronic disaster like this!!

I do like the suicide doors though.....are we bringing suicide doors back? I hope so!

[arch_stanton]

The all electric truck is not their over the road solution it is a local truck as I posted before their over the road truck is the hydrogen fuel cell electric truck.
https://nikolamotor.com/one

[dhirocz]

All good points. These are the things they aren't thinking about, because most likely, it's a bunch of corporate jerkoffs calling the shots without any regard to the actual climate in trucking. Politicians are the same way. Put them in a room together and you get a bunch of unrealistic goals that will end no different than the EV1 did years back when Saturn tried it.

The technology is here, but nobody ever said it was cost effective yet, or feasible. I think they are still experimenting and will be for quite awhile, while technology continues to progress, they continue to learn, and they get cheaper to build.

And yeah, I don't care if it's the USS Enterprise, the damn thing will still need repair and maintenance. Anyone who believes that proves just how dumb some people can be.

We already have a viable solution that is abundant. Steam. Already had a guy make a steam powered automobile years back. Know where it went? Government bought the patent. Guess why? Can't be regulated...no money in it for them. Until we realize that we are restraining ourselves by prioritizing money above all else, this problem will simply continue. Problem is, money is power in most if not all cases...so fixing this problem is really a double edged sword.

[Rawze]

(11-21-2017 )dhirocz Wrote:  ...
a guy make a steam powered automobile years back
...

* The best diesel and gasoline engines in the world only transfer between 40% - 60% of the fuels BTU into the flywheel. The rest is lost as heat.

* There have been modern closed-loop dry-steam engines developed that, even if heated by dielel and/or gasoline, transfer more than 92% of the total BTU of the fuel source to the flywheel.

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There is a clear advantage to steam and it will produce as much or more power than a gasoline and/or diesel engine with the same or less displacement at the end of the day. Problem is that there is no money in it for the oil industry or the powers (farmers that push around all the sheeple) that be.

[Jamescj212]

They havent said the weight of the unit itself yet. People are speculating the battery is 10k pounds, and only has a 500/mi range or so. All these big walmarts of the world are preordering the unknown. All of this when they dont even have all.the kinks out of tesla yet. I admire his desire to take us into the next century, but damn dude figure out the glitches of the 1st nine things youve got in the oben before adding seven more new things .

[Kid Rock]

Funny how people think they can just plug these trucks in and make the world a greener place. The power has got to come from some where. Especially power of that scale

[Rawze]

Diesel/hydraulic mixture + electric assist fired steam turbine driven hydraulic power plant. Direct hydraulic driven gear reduction hubs and no drive-shaft, tyranny, rears, and all the sort of stuff that eats up energy and weight. Every system on the truck hydraulic instead of air. Air supply only for trailers.

The diesel fuel assist is also used as the hydraulic system reservoir via a diesel/hydraulic fluid mix as the fuel and the hydraulic system in one combined liquid. Electric heating is done with super-capacitors and cells when assist is not needed. nothing is wasted, a charging station can still be used on the assist system, and the diesel/hydro mix can be used when it runs out of charge or more energy is needed.

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I think that would be a more realistic goal instead of going all electric and hoping for the best.