Last September, Tesla poached some employees from Daimler's SuperTruck semi truck program. Unsurprisingly, they were hired on to work on a Tesla EV semi, something that generally has taken a back seat to Model 3 development but hasn't been dormant. With Model 3 progress further along, it seems T esla is ready to start spilling more details, although the actual truck and its capabilities are still a little vague.
Earlier this month, Musk announced the semi would be revealed in September 2017, and today we're seeing a teaser image of the semi for the first time. The image you see above was captured as a screenshot from Elon Musk's TED talk on Friday, and he even mentioned that he had driven it around the company's parking lot, according to Business Insider.
Musk also said that he's hoping that the electric semi truck will be able to beat a diesel truck's range and torque. The latter seems easy enough – electric motors make all their torque right off the line – but the range statement is audacious. Long haul semi trucks generally get more than 1,000 miles out of a tank of diesel, depending on a number of factors. So it'll take a heck of a lot of battery capacity to get that kind of range for a tractor and trailer setup that could weigh up to 80,000 lbs. So, sprinkle a little salt on Musk's claims here.
If you look closely at the image, you'll notice there are no side mirrors. And while it's streamlined, it looks like it has a very similar form factor to a standard diesel semi. Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is testing right now.
We'll know more before Tesla reveals this thing in September, surely, so stay tuned.
Related Video:
Earlier this month, Musk announced the semi would be revealed in September 2017, and today we're seeing a teaser image of the semi for the first time. The image you see above was captured as a screenshot from Elon Musk's TED talk on Friday, and he even mentioned that he had driven it around the company's parking lot, according to Business Insider.
Musk also said that he's hoping that the electric semi truck will be able to beat a diesel truck's range and torque. The latter seems easy enough – electric motors make all their torque right off the line – but the range statement is audacious. Long haul semi trucks generally get more than 1,000 miles out of a tank of diesel, depending on a number of factors. So it'll take a heck of a lot of battery capacity to get that kind of range for a tractor and trailer setup that could weigh up to 80,000 lbs. So, sprinkle a little salt on Musk's claims here.
If you look closely at the image, you'll notice there are no side mirrors. And while it's streamlined, it looks like it has a very similar form factor to a standard diesel semi. Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck is testing right now.
We'll know more before Tesla reveals this thing in September, surely, so stay tuned.
Related Video:
Sign in to post
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Continue