Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On December 7, Tesla held a press conference last Thursday to deliver the first batch of Semi electric heavy trucks to PepsiCo. It has been five years since Semi made its debut. This is mainly because the current market of Tesla Semi electric heavy truck is not large, if there is no subsidy, it is not cost-effective to take this kind of electric heavy truck for transportation.

▲ Tesla Semi: do people buy Tesla electric cars because they are cool or efficient? The answer to this question is crucial to Tesla's Semi electric heavy truck.

Tesla's latest truck product on the market is an 8-class electric truck (car + load of more than 15 tons). Unlike the passenger car market that Tesla is familiar with, heavy truck buyers usually choose products based on a strict "total cost of ownership", which combines the vehicle price with the estimated cost of running per kilometer. In the low-profit logistics industry, brands and aesthetics do not have much value.

Tesla must be aware of this, but that didn't stop the company from promoting Semi electric heavy trucks as consumer goods. "if you are a truck driver and you want to drive the best truck on the road, this is it," Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said at a product delivery conference last week. You see on Tesla's official website that the first performance detail that Semi electric heavy trucks emphasize is acceleration performance, but this is not something that fleet buyers traditionally care about.

There may be a reason for the apparent madness of Semi electric heavy trucks. American truck drivers have long been in short supply, and easy-to-drive electric drives and trucks that are hugely attractive to ordinary consumers may help companies hire drivers. However, Semi electric heavy trucks still need to meet the "total cost of ownership" requirements, and considering that the operating efficiency of electric heavy trucks is already very low, it is more difficult to make a profit financially than electric cars.

When Tesla first launched the Semi electric truck five years ago, the company said it sold an electric truck with a range of 300 miles for $150000 and an electric truck with a range of 500 miles for $180000. At that time, the price of an ordinary Class 8 truck was about $120000, but Tesla only expected that the lower operating costs of electric trucks would make up for the price gap. In the past two years, Tesla electric cars and ordinary diesel trucks have become more expensive due to a shortage of spare parts, but Tesla has not adjusted the price of Semi electric heavy trucks.

Tesla said the Semi electric heavy truck has a range of 500miles. Musk tweeted on Friday that the Semi battery consumes 1.7kWh per mile, meaning the Semi electric heavy truck with a range of 500mph has a total capacity of 850kWh. Battery prices released by consulting firm BloombergNEF on Tuesday show that battery costs for electric vehicles this year are about $151per kilowatt-hour. As a result, the battery cost of the Semi electric heavy truck alone is well over $100000.

This may explain why Tesla's Semi project took so long from release to delivery.

In August, when the inflation reduction Act (Inflation Reduction Act) was nearing approval, Musk announced that deliveries of Semi would begin this month. With the inflation reduction Act coming into effect in January, companies will be able to apply for a $40,000 federal tax credit to keep the cost of buying medium or heavy electric trucks in line with fuel vehicles of the same class.

Tesla now delivers the first batch of Semi electric heavy trucks to Pepsi in California, where additional subsidies are provided to trucking companies that buy electric cars. An existing truckmaker says state-level subsidies are also necessary to further narrow the transport cost gap in addition to federal tax breaks.

Class 8 trucks usually travel short distances. From a commercial point of view, electric trucks with shorter range may have a bigger market. Tesla Semi electric heavy trucks will compete with competitors that typically use smaller batteries, such as Volvo's latest flagship VNR Electric electric truck, which carries a battery of 565 kilowatt hours and has a range of 275 miles. John Larson (Johan Larsson), head of development for Volvo's European electric heavy truck business, points out that 45 per cent of all goods carried by trucks on European roads travel less than 300km (186miles).

In short, electric heavy trucks have a place in the transport market, but now they need a lot of subsidies and short transportation distances to compete with ordinary trucks, so the market is subject to a lot of restrictions. The cool element of Tesla's products will not let the Semi electric heavy truck go too far.

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