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Page added on December 13, 2017

Tesla lines up buyers for electric semi-truck

PepsiCo is the latest company to go public with preliminary plans to buy electric semi-trucks from Tesla, which recently unveiled a rig with plans to begin production in 2019.

Why it matters: While these are not final transactions, the announcements by major companies represent something of a corporate vote of confidence in Tesla despite its recent stumbles scaling up production of its mass-market Model 3 sedan.

Keep reading 182 words

Reuters reports that the food and beverage giant has reserved 100 of the trucks, the largest reported corporate purchase plan thus far. Walmart has reserved 15 trucks and the trucking company J. B. Hunt Transport Services has also placed orders, among other buyers. Overall reservations to date are at 276, according to Reuters calculations.

PepsiCo confirmed the order to Axios. “These trucks will be deployed across our snacks and beverage businesses,” a spokesperson said.

Big picture: If automakers like Daimler and Tesla can eventually succeed in making electric heavy trucks more than just a tiny portion of U.S. and worldwide commercial fleets, that would bring the world closer to a peak in oil demand.

The projected growth of petroleum demand for heavy trucking is a primary reason why the International Energy Agency’s most recent World Energy Outlook does not show a peak in worldwide crude consumption by 2040, the end of its analysis period.

Go deeper: My Axios colleague Steve LeVine wrote about the unveiling of Tesla’s semi-truck here, and explored the battery technology that Musk may be using here.

Axios

20 Comments on "Tesla lines up buyers for electric semi-truck"

Boat on Wed, 13th Dec 2017 7:35 pm

I just want to drive one.

CAM on Wed, 13th Dec 2017 7:48 pm

A study by Carnegie Mellon University is an interesting read on this subject:

ACS Energy Lett. 2017, 2, 2642-2646

Does not sound like this is going to be easy.

Cloggie on Wed, 13th Dec 2017 11:01 pm

This kind of news will continue for the coming 30 years and after that a carbon-free economy will be a fact and all the drama queens proven wrong (apneagirl comes yo mind).

dave thompson on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 12:20 am

I will believe this when the amount of carbon from FF burning going into the atmosphere year over year goes down.
So far FF use has only gone up.
Funny thing to, even with the advent of all the clean energy purportedly being produced, seems every year the world just keeps on burning more and more carbon based FF.

Cloggie on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 12:31 am

I will believe this when the amount of carbon from FF burning going into the atmosphere year over year goes down.
So far FF use has only gone up.

Not in Europe:

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/en/documents/publications/studies/What-will-the-energy-transformation-cost.pdf

page 9

The rest doesn’t care or is too much concerned with economic growth.

dave thompson on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 12:46 am

Cloggie if Europe lived in a bubble and was not part of the global atmosphere you might have a valid point.
In the real world that we all live in the amount of FF use has only increased, worldwide year over year.
So again I will point out, that so far, even with all of the so called advances that have come about in the use of and building of “clean energy” inputs humans on planet earth are still burning more and more FF year over year.

Davy on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 3:40 am

“Not in Europe:”

“Germany to miss climate targets ‘disastrously’: leaked government paper”
https://tinyurl.com/yc53wdqk
“Environment ministry documents reveal 2020 target for cutting emissions to be missed by a large margin dealing a “significant blow to Germany’s climate policy”’

https://tinyurl.com/ya9hz2ye
If you click this graph and you will see Germany is stuck in the 900 range since 2009. IOW Germany has been range bound GHG for years. The policy you laud is a failed policy. It is a worthy policy to peruse but it is a fake green one in reality. It is an exaggeration. If German can’t achieve this policy then the world can’t do it and it is appearing Germany isn’t achieving the policy. German would likely have to economically degrowth significantly to achieve a much lower target. Dutchy, your renewable efforts you proselytize are only maintaining the status quo. There is so far no transformation and a transition seems like a fantasy forecast. The German economy must stay strong and competitive and to do this it must grow and to grow means reductions in GHG are going to be difficult.

deadlykillerbeaz on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 6:10 am

It is a good idea to have electric trucks. Driverless, programmed routes, you’re taking it to the limit. A robot, robots unload the cargo, crates of Pepsi. Nobody has to be there to get the work done.

A diesel engine consumes 150 gallons of fuel in a distance of probably 750 to 800 miles.

450 dollars worth of diesel fuel to take you 800 miles with 50,000 lbs of corn to the ethanol plant to make moonshine, might as well make that trip.

An electric truck would consume how much electricity for how many hours of operation?

500 miles is the range, so ten hours at 50 mph. At 1.25 USD per mile, the cost is 625 dollars to drive an electric truck 500 miles.

If the cost is less than 450 dollars for 16 hours of road time, it makes a lot of sense.

Although, 625 dollars at 500 miles still looks cost competitive. Costs can be reduced.

Don’t have to burn and buy diesel fuel, it will decrease crude oil consumption. Two benefits in one.

More coal will have to be burned at the coal-fired power plant and a new coal-fired power plant will be built.

Fossil fuels will be consumed, regardless of how they are used, heat, electricity, doesn’t matter.

I am not ashamed of using coal and oil, they make life better. Fact of the matter, coal and oil make living a breeze.

You have to be invested in energy stocks, especially anything electricity.

Just happens to be the way it is in this world. Life is better when coal and oil are used as energy sources. That is why people want them, demand them. Same goes for electricity, demand for electricity never ceases.

Can’t deny that coal and oil are vital, without them, it’s all over.

Electric trucks are a much better idea than electric cars.

With electric trucks, you won’t have to build as many, the build quality can be controlled with greater success.

If Boeing can build a Dreamliner, then Tesla can build a decent electric truck.

And quit living in denial, admit that coal and oil are required for modern living and make life exactly what it is right now. You can do it.

joe on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 8:55 am

Electric trucks like electric cars are only useful in the greenhouse sense if they don’t use fossil fuels to charge their batteries. If you want to power society using battery powered engines charged from Nat gas powered grids (with some windmills thrown in for effect) then ok. With Saudi Arabia poised to exit the energy by making Standard Oil a chemicals company by 2030 my guess is that strategic choice has already been made. Russia and Iran/Qatar have the biggest share of nat gas on earth. They can power what Saudi supplies are made into in China. Not sure how the US/EU benefits…..

With the 0.01% getting richer faster every day, we are all being left behind.

________ on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 9:18 am

This idiot Busk nor anyone else will get rid of carbon. But if they do you are in deep ice

Sissyfuss on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 12:43 pm

________, ___________ _____ ____ ________ ______________ ___ __ _ ________________ ___.
And don’t forget it!

Makati1 on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 7:03 pm

The US is “bombing” Japan with junk falling off of their antique helicopters.

“Marine Corps apologizes after aircraft part falls on 2nd Japanese school in a week, injuring a student”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/International/marine-corps-apologizes-aircraft-part-falls-2nd-japanese/story?id=51760688

Maintenance is a bitch when you only have $700,000,000,000.+ to spend on repairs.

DMyers on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 7:37 pm

Whether you give this an up or a down, the overriding question involves pragmatic application. We won’t know whether these are functional until they are out there for a time, proving themselves.

A lingering issue here relates to the net positive value of substituting electric for gas fueled vehicles. Electricity itself is a direct product of burned fossil fuels for the most part. Anticipating that electric will be provided by wind and solar in the future, there is still no way to predict how the corresponding electric austerity will affect the operation of large electric vehicles.

For that reason I don’t completely understand Cloggie’s celebration of these blueprint vehicles. I’m neither for, nor ag’in’ the concept, but its net contribution to the situation will only be known after it’s shown.

Boat on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 9:11 pm

Joe,

In the FF capital of the world/Houston, renewables now supply 89% of the electricity. Bring on those electric trucks. Houston also had the countries first gay mayor of a large city. Go figure

GregT on Thu, 14th Dec 2017 10:17 pm

“In the FF capital of the world/Houston, renewables now supply 89% of the electricity.”

The FF capital of the world has been Saudi Arabia Boat, since the 1970s. There is no such thing as renewable electricity, and the talk of electric trucks is nothing more than a sign of desperation.

“Houston also had the countries first gay mayor of a large city. Go figure”

What next? The first mayor who openly admits to sticking his penis into hamsters? Really relevant stuff. Go figure.

Cloggie on Fri, 15th Dec 2017 12:12 am

Perhaps Antius cares:

https://tinyurl.com/ydf67x2s

4p summary of the Fraunhofer blueprint of 80-90% renewable energy society:

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/en/documents/publications/studies/What-will-the-energy-transformation-cost.pdf

Cloggie on Fri, 15th Dec 2017 12:15 am

Houston also had the countries first gay mayor of a large city. Go figure

If that’s not renewable, I don’t know what is.

/facepalm

What next? The first mayor who openly admits to sticking his penis into hamsters? Really relevant stuff. Go figure.