Tesla Semi starting off with a Bang, Can Tesla Deliver?

[G. David Felt]

Tesla Semi starting off with a Bang, Can Tesla Deliver?

Tesla in the last week has gone from zero to hero in regards to helping companies that have fleets of semi trucks potentially reduce their carbon footprint. 

Anheuser-Busch started off with pre-ordering 40 of the Semi's. This was then followed by Sysco ordering 50 themselves. This week we now hear that PepsiCo has placed an order for 100 EV Semi's. Story is all the same, reduce costs of maintenance and fuel plus adding silence into their night / early morning deliveries. 

Sysco being one of the largest food delivery companies along with Bud's order places it at $13.5 million in semi value. PepsiCo adds another $15 million so a total of $28.5 million. Then Wal-Mart places an order for 15 of the trucks for testing with a price of $2.25 million. DHL has also ordered 10 of the Semi's for testing in the US market so another $1.5 . J.B. Hunt and Ryder truck hauling lease companies have also placed large orders they say but have declined to say how many at this time for EV Semis. This brings in the last 2 weeks since the semi's introduction about 200 pre-orders of the trucks or about $30 million book value with an unknown amount from two of the biggest leasing truck companies.

PepsiCo has 10,000 semi's alone on the roads of North America and has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas production on the road by 30% by 2030. Seems it could be even more trucks to be ordered to help them achieve this number. Over all, Tesla has had some game changing ideas, yet with the Tesla 3 mess of building the cars, one does have to wonder if Tesla can deliver and get these trucks to market by 2019.

It seems that this has been good for Tesla stock as the more truck orders being placed has continued to push up the stock price.

https://binged.it/2BXGYSp

Story References 

Autoblog story

Reuters Story

Wall Street Journal Story

Car Freaks Story

[balthazar]

"By 2019"?? Not likely given the track record.

Maybe 2022.

[G. David Felt]

22 minutes ago, balthazar said:

"By 2019"?? Not likely given the track record.

Maybe 2022.

But Musk says the semi's will be on the road by 2019! 

I agree that 2022 would seem more likely. Makes me wonder what Paccar, maker of Kenworth and Peterbilt as well as Volvo, Mack and MB have in store for delivering Electric Semi's. We know MB has had mules for the last couple years but they could only cover 100 miles.

[ccap41]

2 minutes ago, dfelt said:

But Musk says the semi's will be on the road by 2019! 

I agree that 2022 would seem more likely. Makes me wonder what Paccar, maker of Kenworth and Peterbilt as well as Volvo, Mack and MB have in store for delivering Electric Semi's. We know MB has had mules for the last couple years but they could only cover 100 miles.

Cummins has EV trucks they're working on already as well, although I think you just accidentally forgot because I thought you knew that. 

I think they're about ready for production, if they already aren't. 

[G. David Felt]

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Cummins has EV trucks they're working on already as well, although I think you just accidentally forgot because I thought you knew that. 

I think they're about ready for production, if they already aren't. 

Nope did not forget about Cummins, but their Aeos EV Semi truck is a concept only as it was built to show off their production ready EV Powertrain they want to sell to existing Class 7 & 8 truck builders. Their power train is going into a couple different commercial EV buses, but they have not yet secured a Class 7 or 8 Semi truck builder yet.

[G. David Felt]

FYI, Toyota using Kenworth truck shells has mules of their Hydrogen Class 8 Semi trucks. They are building a Hydrogen fueling system at the Port of Los Angeles and expect to have these trucks running around LA in quantity over the next few years.

I have to wonder about the long term viability of this design when the sleeper cab is used as one massive Hydrogen storage system instead to give it long haul capabilities. The fueling station at the port will also be open to any Mirai car owner to use to fuel.

[ccap41]

16 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Nope did not forget about Cummins, but their Aeos EV Semi truck is a concept only as it was built to show off their production ready EV Powertrain they want to sell to existing Class 7 & 8 truck builders. Their power train is going into a couple different commercial EV buses, but they have not yet secured a Class 7 or 8 Semi truck builder yet.

Ohhhh I see what you mean. I didn't realize what I had looked at was mostly just a power train for existing chassis. 

[G. David Felt]

5 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Ohhhh I see what you mean. I didn't realize what I had looked at was mostly just a power train for existing chassis. 

Cummins AEOS is a sharp looking truck that I bet they could sell if they put it into production. I could see it silently delivering goods around a city.

[G. David Felt]

Interesting read by an actual trucker about the Tesla. Yes he is excited and believes we will move forward with EV Semi class 8 trucks. But he does have issues with the seating position, big screens and lack of Mirrors.

Questions from a real trucker about Tesla Semi story here

[Robert Hall]

7 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Interesting read by an actual trucker about the Tesla. Yes he is excited and believes we will move forward with EV Semi class 8 trucks. But he does have issues with the seating position, big screens and lack of Mirrors. 

Some of that is concept vehicle fluff, I wonder how different the production version will be in details...probably will have normal mirrors, etc.

[G. David Felt]

@balthazar We'll your crystal ball is proving correct as Tesla now says the semi's will be out by late 2020. Slipped a year to focus on the Tesla 3.  continuation of proving Tesla always late delivery.

[Robert Hall]

Given all the production issues with the Model 3 they have had, I really question if Tesla will be able to deliver anything new going forward, let alone a Class 8 truck.