Tesla's New Truck Part 2

Yesterday, I introduced you to Tesla Motor’s new all-electric semi capable of traveling 300 or 500 miles on a single charge with an enhanced autopilot ability permitting it to run unattended if legal. But how does this help us, the ordinary consumer? The following graphic is from Tesla’s own presentation and makes it quite clear why the 80/20 rule applies:



You can see from the image that Mr. Musk claims that 80% of truck routes are 250 miles or less. That means this simple invention can replace 80% of emission-spewing trucks carrying cargo from metropolitan areas, especially in California and the Northeast.

Tesla already has pre-orders for this truck before even a single production model has come off the assembly line. The first customer will be Tesla itself hauling supplies between Tesla’s Fremont factory and the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. Walmart, the Canadian firm of Loblaws and JK Moving services have already placed orders. Currently, Tesla is only accepting orders from North American firms but will eventually spread out to Europe.

Just think of a world where you order a new product from Amazon and they need to move 100,000 from a warehouse to a distribution center near you. A Tesla Semi pulls up, loads up and silently and autonomously transports that load to the distribution center using no diesel fuel, emitting no pollution and costing a fraction of a traditional trucking.

Here’s the bottom line: if 80% of the trucks on the road today can be replaced by clean, all-electric trucks, we can cut out 80% of diesel emissions and cut the costs of transporting goods over reasonable distances by 80%. Everyone wins.

The Sun produces enough energy every day to satisfy the world’s energy needs for a full year three times over. Why burn fossil fuels, create climate-changing greenhouse gases and pollution when the Sun provides all of this for free?

Like everything else that Elon Musk does, I think this truck is going to change the world.