Re:Tesla Semi’s Enormous Battery Might Weigh 11,000 Pounds o...
by bryanlarsen on Friday December 02, 2022 @03:24PM
(#33836375)
A dead battery isn't dead, it just has a reduced capacity. Usually the battery is considered dead at 80%, so it's a 400 mile truck then. That 400 mile truck is still useful, so it'd probably be cheaper to sell the 400 mile truck and buy a new truck then to replace the battery and sell the old battery.
Another question is: how much of the savings in fuel costs going to go to the operator and how much is going to go to Tesla in purchase price? 5 years ago it was announced at $180K, but it's certainly going to sell for a lot more than that. A Nikola Tre with 360 mile range goes for $270K, so it's quite possible that Tesla will charge $400K for theirs. So you might start off at about $250K in the hole so it'll be hundreds of thousands of miles before the Tesla is cheaper than a diesel.
Re:Tesla Semi’s Enormous Battery Might Weigh 11,000 Pounds o...
by Robotbeat on Friday December 02, 2022 @05:42PM
(#33837978)
If the battery lasts 2000 cycles (reasonable for good chemistry… some chemistries can last over 5000 cycles), then that’s 1 million miles. (Tesla’s powertrain is certified for that much, too). At electric 19cents per miles and diesel at 82 cents per mile, that’s $630,000 in savings just for fuel, not to mention Diesel Exhaust Fluid, oil changes, and brakes.
The 500 mile range Tesla Semi cost $180,000 at launch. Let’s say they’re off by nearly a factor of 2, so new Semis will be $315,000. That means you’ll be able to buy 2 500 mile Tesla Semis for just the fuel savings from one.
With a more pessimistic 6.5MPG, using mbell's math, that's 82 cents per mile in fuel. Electric is 19 cents per mile.
An average semi lasts 750,000 miles: https://www.tristatetruck.com/blog/posts/what-is-the-average...
Let's assume for a moment that Tesla has made a motor and batteries that will last that long (far from guaranteed). Heck, let's take some random internet claims at face value and say that the motor will last "millions" of miles and the batteries will last 300,000 miles: https://www.vehiclehistory.com/articles/how-many-miles-will-.... Will these batteries last 300k with a likely use case of being driven to their absolute maximum range every single day?
In that 300,000 miles, the fuel savings of electric will save you 300k * (0.82-0.19) = $189k. Replacing all the battery modules in a Model 3 (82kWh) will cost somewhere in the range of $25k. How much would replacing this giant battery cost?
It's possibly better, but the math isn't particularly clear.