Tesla unveil Semi, new Roadster, & also teased a "pickup truck"

[aturnis]

Anyone watch the unveil last night?



The numbers on the semi destroyed what anyone thought possible.

- 0-60 in 5 sec
- 0-60 in 20 sec under max gross payload of 80k lbs
- 65mph up 5% grade under max lied, compared to 45mph for ICE semi
- 500 mile range
- 400 miles of additional range after 30 min charge
- Guaranteed 7¢/kWh fuel cost(solar) compared to volatile oil
- Nuclear explosion proof glass(apparently cracked windshield takes semi off road)
- 1 million mile guarantee it won't breakdown
- Will never need a brake change
- "Impossible" to jacknife
- Beats semis on economics day 1
- In convoy mode, beats rail on economics

300 miles of range: $150,000
500 miles of range: $180,000
Founders series: $200,000




https://youtu.be/CBTQnmUolas
The Roadster was a complete surprise, and the numbers given destroy any production car you can think of, even a Koenisegg.

- 0-60 in 1.9 sec (this is faster than most Formula 1 cars)
- 0-100 in 4.2
- 1/4 mile in 8.9 sec
- 250+ mph top speed
- 621 mile range (That's Kansas City to Denver without fueling)
- 10,000 nm torque

and that's the base model. Starting at $200k and Founders series at $250k. Destroys million dollar cars.



Also teased a rendering image of a consumer pickup truck with a normal truck in the bed.

https://youtu.be/5n9xafjynJA

[morphius]

Originally Posted by aturnis

What's your point. They never promised more. Their internal goal was 1500/week run rate.

If they made 10 cars in the last hour of Q3, they achieved said goal. Only Wall Street would never report it that way b/c they focus on short-term, not long-term. Such is the nature of the daily closing bell.

The ramp will involve a lot of downtime to adjust line components for max efficiency. That's how production line optimization works. Only most companies slow the ramp to reduce downtime and increase production. That's not something Tesla is interested in. For them, long-term outweighs short-term.

Their big bottleneck is in the battery production gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.

An unnamed systems integrator(probably Panasonic) dropped the ball on battery production ramp and Tesla learned of the problem too late. They had to completely rewrite 20-30 man years of software in a matter of weeks. Also had to rework many electrical and mechanical components.

To rewrite all that software likely took loads of manpower. I'd estimate 500+ software programmers/engineers. This is likely why the improvement of autopilot 2.0 has suffered as a result.

I'm not too worried about their delays in production. I just want to have a company from the US that is seen as at least as good as Toyota is viewed, you know? Having a great warranty is nice, but being without your car leaves a mark as well, so there has to be a balance there.

[aturnis]

Originally Posted by morphius

I'm not too worried about their delays in production. I just want to have a company from the US that is seen as at least as good as Toyota is viewed, you know? Having a great warranty is nice, but being without your car leaves a mark as well, so there has to be a balance there.

I think their loaner car is a Tesla Model S P100D standard.

They pick it up and drop off the loaner.

They also have a mobile fleet that can take care of most service in the field. So they fix it in the parking lot while you're inside at your desk working.

I get it, people want to find reasons to naysay, but they are quickly running out as Tesla knocks the arguments against them out of the water.

Hell, this is what they can achieve with today's battery tech. Right now. Once every auto manufacturer in the world has gone full EV by 2025-2030, the rate at which battery tech will improve will be ridiculous. The gains of even meager battery energy density improvements are immense.

[DaFace]

If nothing else, I love that Tesla is pushing everyone else to get better. Hopefully they can figure out their production issues sooner than later.

[morphius]

Exactly! Too many years where the car companies looked at electric cars as these loathsome vehicles.

[prhom]

Seems to me they should be viewing batteries as an interchangeable unit rather than a fixed piece of the vehicles. A Tesla station should have fully charged battery packs ready to switch out when you arrive. That may make design more of a challenge but would improve one of the big drawbacks, especially for trucks. You don’t own the batteries, but exchange them when you need a new charge. Battery replacement also seems like a huge sustaining capital cost that never gets figured in when looking at the costs. What is the lifespan? Maybe a few years if you are lucky?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by prhom

Seems to me they should be viewing batteries as an interchangeable unit rather than a fixed piece of the vehicles. A Tesla station should have fully charged battery packs ready to switch out when you arrive. That may make design more of a challenge but would improve one of the big drawbacks, especially for trucks. You don’t own the batteries, but exchange them when you need a new charge. Battery replacement also seems like a huge sustaining capital cost that never gets figured in when looking at the costs. What is the lifespan? Maybe a few years if you are lucky?

I know they've considered that for the cars, but I haven't heard anything about that being a serious part of the game-plan for a while anyway.

I do agree that that would take care of the issue of having to sit around for an hour or two while it recharges.

That said, battery lifespan on the Teslas at least doesn't appear to be a huge concern.

[cooper barrett]

Originally Posted by prhom

Seems to me they should be viewing batteries as an interchangeable unit rather than a fixed piece of the vehicles. A Tesla station should have fully charged battery packs ready to switch out when you arrive. That may make design more of a challenge but would improve one of the big drawbacks, especially for trucks. You don’t own the batteries, but exchange them when you need a new charge. Battery replacement also seems like a huge sustaining capital cost that never gets figured in when looking at the costs. What is the lifespan? Maybe a few years if you are lucky?

Just lift out the battery pack, sure tell your wife to run to the store for beer and while she is at it swap the batteries.



You can thank me for pointing this out because if you said it anywhere else but CP you would be flamed

[BWillie]

I can't imagine what the insurance is like on these cars. Those things are all aluminum and they get a couple panels with dings on them and they can total them out.

[TLO]

0-60 in 1.9 seconds?

Good lord...

[aturnis]

Originally Posted by prhom

Seems to me they should be viewing batteries as an interchangeable unit rather than a fixed piece of the vehicles. A Tesla station should have fully charged battery packs ready to switch out when you arrive. That may make design more of a challenge but would improve one of the big drawbacks, especially for trucks. You don’t own the batteries, but exchange them when you need a new charge. Battery replacement also seems like a huge sustaining capital cost that never gets figured in when looking at the costs. What is the lifespan? Maybe a few years if you are lucky?

They tried the battery swap route. Both they and the public weren't huge fans. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they don't do it for the Semi though. A lease agreement on the batteries could bring down the initial investment for buyers and reduce their unfounded anxiety on battery life.

Tesloop is operating a Model S with over 300,000 miles on it so far in just 2 yrs(?). School has over 90% capacity.

Tesla has brought in the world's leading battery excluded Jeff Dahn to try and help achieve some improvements.

One of the goals was you double the battery life. I think it was intended to be a 5 year protect. I think they double the expected battery life in a few months.

The completely arbitrary of 10 years is been assigned to the lifespan of the battery packso the soonest, we can infer that teslas battery packs may live above 80% capacity for I'll to 20 years.

In 10-20 yrs, the cost of knew batteries should be negligible compared with the savings in other maintenance and fuel savings.

[vailpass]

What's the price tag for that semi?

[aturnis]

Don't believe they've said. Just that operating expense is cheaper day one. For heavy users I'm sure.

I'd imagine savings on fuel and maintenance would be immense. Not to mention the value of certainty that comes with a known cost of operation.

I'd take a guess of $350-500k.

[aturnis]

https://electrek.co/2017/11/17/tesla...ectric-trucks/

Orders already piling up. Truck expected on road in 2019.

[Dayze]

when I drove OTR, I think I averaged about 6mpg.
2x 100gal tanks, and I was told by our safety team that "when you hit 1200 miles, you'd better know where you're getting fuel".

I never ran it to the point of being super low on fuel, but when I'd hit 1200 miles, the needle was definitely flirting with "E".

[cooper barrett]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I can't imagine what the insurance is like on these cars. Those things are all aluminum and they get a couple panels with dings on them and they can total them out.

Aluminum has been used for a long time. ford f series trucks are aluminum bodies.

Comsumer Reports "Ford also claims that body-repair costs won't be any higher than for a steel-bodied truck."