DHL tests Tesla Semi and confirms the electric truck's impressive performance
DHL tests Tesla Semi and confirms the electric truck's impressive performance
DHL revealed the result of a Tesla Semi trial it recently did and the company came out impressed by the...
DHL says that it was able to confirm that the Tesla Semi is capable of 500 miles on a single charge with a full load.
But more importantly, DHL confirmed that it achieved an efficiency of 1.72 kWh/mile on average during its two-week trial:
During the trial, the trial vehicle averaged 1.72 kWh/mile operating at speeds exceeding 50 mph (80 km/h) on average for over half its time on the road. The result exceeded our expectations and even Tesla’s own rating. That’s exactly what Tesla has been predicting, and in fact, Tesla says that it now does a little better with 1.6 kWh per mile.
kWh per mile means that this is the amount of energy it needs to travel a mile. Considering that 1.7 kWh of electricity can cost as low as $0.15, it opens up the opportunity to greatly reduced the cost of operation of semi trucks.
Tired truckers + touchscreens that are not control by feel are a disaster waiting to happen. Full touchscreen controls in cars needs to end.
First off, there are already full screen displays in diesel engine rigs because many electronic log systems are done on full tablets. Second, using them is illegal and monitored in most major fleets. Third, there are limits to moving vehicles to only a certain amount of inputs before there is a pause or a lockout. You can connect your phone while driving or scroll through everything without having to stop.
For everyone interested in the topic there is an English version of a German electric trucking channel: https://youtube.com/@electrictrucker.
TLDR; Every major truck company has an electric truck for sale, they have the same daily range in Europe and are significantly cheaper to operate.
He is a startup found turned truck driver who does weekly vlogs about his work and gives good insights about the current state of electric trucking in Europe. At the moment every large trucking company (not just Tesla) have electric trucks on sale and the company he is working for bought quite a few from different companies. He gets day ranges of 750km with the right traffic conditions and also just charges in his 45min breaks which you have to take every 3.5h I believe. Also the daily driving is limited to 10h and the maximum speed limit is 80 kph, so the theoretical maximum range of a single driver truck in Europe is a little bit above 800km. That puts electric truck right now on par with diesel trucks, because you cant always drive the at the maximum speed limit. Also he calculated once that electric trucks are roughly 30% cheeper.
Speeds "exceeding 50 MPH"? Like, 51 MPH? The claimed efficiency is nonsense given the promotional videos from Tesla where they tried to obscure the driving time, distance, and speed. It also flies in the face of the EV Semi testing conducted last year
DHL's statement is that their longest run was 390 mines, with no information about state of charge at the beginning or end. They are extrapolating the 500 mile distance.
This sounds like Pepsi's first press statements before they found out what shit boxes these trucks are the hard way.
This sounds like Pepsi’s first press statements before they found out what shit boxes these trucks are the hard way.
Do you have info on this? I hadn't heard any negative reaction from Pepsi.
Edit: I did my own searching at I'm even more skeptical of your claim Pepsi doesn't like Tesla Semi. Their biggest complaint is that they can't buy as many as they want.. In that article they even say they're buying additional electric Semi trucks from competitors, but competitor trucks have half the range. In this article from 3 days ago Pepsi is talking a how much they like the Tesla Semi. And in this article Pepsi talks about how the Pepsi truck drivers like the Tesla Semi.. So nothing here matches what you're saying. I'm interested to see what you saw to form your conclusion.
Be as skeptical of me as you like. Feel free to believe the company that has lied for a decade now about capabilities and timelines. It doesn't hurt me at all. But keep in mind that Tesla has forced crash victims that they have settled with to sign NDAs and non-disparagement agreements. It's 100% likely that PepsiCo has also signed both.
I'm not sure how you could think they weren't having reliability issue with all the Tesla Semi pulled over and being towed for a couple years now, but again that doesn't really effect me. If you look, you'll see evidence. And, of course, you can watch Tesla's own marketing video of the overnight drive. Zoom in on the speedometer and see how fast the driver is going, see the driver being passed by other semis, then wonder why that might be.
https://bradmunchen.substack.com/p/scoop-the-tesla-semi-from-an-insiders
You can also look at the data from Run on Less, look through the days and vehicles. Notice the slope of the curve for drives where the Tesla Semi drives 60 MPH even for brief periods. https://results-2023.runonless.com/truck/?day=17&depot=pepsico&truck=pepsi_tesla3&units=imperial
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so I don’t see any reason they would do that.
You don't see any reason Tesla would fudge their numbers and drive the Semi slowly? I can think of several reasons.
What testing?
Well you can look at the Run on Less campaign, and then start googling for other tests.
This is how EVs actually work.
Yes, but it's NOT how Tesla claims their 500 mile range. Also, every time a Tesla Semi has attempted the longest range driving, the packs have died. Not just run out of charge, but been physically damaged from draining them so low. You don't have to explain how an EV is operated in real life, I've daily driven one for many years now.
When did Pepsi call them shitboxes?
Well, a Pepsi employee. Obviously Pepsi can't say that in the media because Tesla will take away their vehicles which means Pepsi won't qualify for enough tax credits.
No info on total tonnage hauled either. Most electric semis will not be able to haul as much stuff at once.
Most electric semis will not be able to haul as much stuff at once.
I agree with this statement, but not all trucks are weightbound. Many hit their volume limits long before weight limits. Additional with TCO its possible the cost per mile of operating an electric semi might still be worth hauling less tonnage per truck requiring additional shipments.
I saw another source that said they were hauling 75,000lbs total weight and that's as much as they ever usually haul. So they don't max out their trucks on a daily basis carrying parcels, so for them whatever the total allowable difference is between an EV/ICE isn't an issue.
Edit: I guess that if DHL grew as a business though they might eventually start moving more packages around and that would require more weight, but that's not a today thing.
For most of the world, 1.72 kWh/mile is about 1.07kWh/km and 107kWh/100km.
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Just divide 1 by the kWh/mile.
DHL is a very troubled company and should not be trusted. This is an ROI study agreement between DHL and Tesla.
Is that the one where the driver sits in the center of the cab?
X
What is a full load of a Tesla truck when compared to a Scania truck?
Edison Motors > Tesla
Fight me.
Still too musky for me. Shit can the fascist first.
That is a given. Eat the rich while we are at it.
It didnt catch fire?