Tesla Inc unveiled a prototype electric big-rig truck Thursday night, throwing itself into a new market even as it struggles to roll out an affordable sedan on which the company’s future depends.
Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled the big rig, dubbed the Tesla Semi, by riding the truck into an airport hangar near Los Angeles in front of an invited crowd of what Tesla said were potential truck buyers and Tesla car owners.
Musk has described electric trucks as Tesla’s next effort to move the economy away from fossil fuels through projects including electric cars, solar roofs and power storage.
Some analysts fear the truck will be an expensive distraction for Tesla, which is burning cash, has never posted an annual profit, and is in self-described ‘manufacturing hell’ starting up production of the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. Tesla shares were roughly flat on Thursday.
Elon Musk unveiled a prototype electric big-rig truck (pictured) Thursday night as Tesla Inc throws itself into a new market even as it struggles to roll out an affordable sedan on which the company’s future depends
Musk has described electric trucks (pictured) as Tesla’s next effort to move the economy away from fossil fuels through projects including electric cars, solar roofs and power storage
Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled the big rig, dubbed the Tesla Semi, by riding the truck into an airport hangar near Los Angeles in front of an invited crowd of what Tesla said were potential truck buyers and Tesla car owners
The truck has four motors, one for each rear wheel. Tesla designed the cab with a roomy feel and a center seat for better visibility, executives said. Two touch screens (pictured inside the cab) flank the driver
Tesla also has to convince the trucking community that it can build an affordable electric big rig with the range and cargo capacity to compete with relatively low-cost, time-tested diesel trucks. The heavy batteries eat into the weight of cargo an electric truck can haul.
The truck can go up to 500 miles at maximum weight at highway speed, Musk said.
Diesel trucks are capable of traveling up to 1,000 miles on a single tank of fuel.
The Tesla Semi can also go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in five seconds without cargo or reach 60mph in 20 seconds at the maximum weight allowed on US highways of 80,000 pounds.
‘I can drive this thing and I have no idea how to drive a semi,’ Musk joked.
Ahead of the unveiling, Tesla executives showed off the Class 8 truck to journalists, describing it as ‘trailer agnostic,’ or capable of hauling any type of freight.
Class 8 is the heaviest weight classification on trucks.
The day cab – which is not a sleeper – has a less prominent nose than on a classic truck, and the battery is built into the chassis.
It has four motors, one for each rear wheel. Tesla designed the cab with a roomy feel and a center seat for better visibility, executives said. Two touch screens flank the driver.
Tesla has to convince the trucking community that it can build an affordable electric big-rig with the range and cargo capacity to compete with relatively low-cost, time-tested diesel trucks. Musk is seen during the unveiling
Musk shared a sneak peek (pictured) of the truck early on Thursday in a short clip on Instagram , ahead of the official unveiling. He has never held back when it comes to boasting about his technology, whether it be an electric vehicle, a reusable rocket, or a tunnel-boring machine
The truck has Tesla’s latest semi-autonomous driving system, designed to keep a vehicle in its lane without drifting, change lanes on command, and transition from one freeway to another with no human intervention.
Reuters reported in August that Tesla was discussing self-driving trucks with regulators in Nevada and California, but the company did not mention full autonomy in a release on the new vehicle.
Old Dominion Freight Line Inc, the fourth-largest US less-than-truckload carrier, which consolidates smaller freight loads onto a single truck, said it would not use the Tesla truck.
‘We met with Tesla and at this time we do not see a fit with their product and our fleet,’ Dave Bates, senior vice president of operations, said in an email, without elaborating.
Earlier this week Musk tweeted that the truck would ‘blow your mind clear out of your skull,’ joking, ‘it can transform into a robot, fight aliens and make one hell of a latte.’
Tesla faces a much more crowded field for electric trucks than it did when it introduced its electric cars.
Manufacturers such as Daimler AG, Navistar International Corp and Volkswagen AG are joining a host of start-ups racing to overcome the challenges of substituting batteries for diesel engines as regulators crack down on carbon dioxide and soot pollution.
Still, manufacturers are mostly focused on medium-duty trucks, not the heavy big rig market Tesla is after.
Tesla would need to invest substantially to create a factory for those trucks. The company is currently spending about $1 billion per quarter, largely to set up the Model 3 factory, and is contemplating a factory in China to build cars.
Charging and maintaining electric trucks that crisscross the country could be expensive and complex.
Tesla said the truck can charge 30 minutes and then travel 400 miles.
Shares of Tesla, which have risen 46 percent this year to make the company the No. 2 US automaker by market value, rose less than half a percent ahead of the announcement to $312.50.
Musk shared a sneak peek of the truck early on Thursday in a short clip on Instagram, ahead of the official unveiling.
He has never held back when it comes to boasting about his technology, whether it be an electric vehicle, a reusable rocket, or a tunnel-boring machine.
The young market for electric cargo trucks is mostly focused on medium duty, rather than the heavy big rig market Tesla is after.
The power capacity, weight and cost of batteries all limit a truck’s ability, analysts say.
Several Silicon Valley companies see long-haul trucking as a prime early market for the self-driving technology, citing the relatively consistent speeds and little cross-traffic trucks face on interstate highways and the benefits of allowing drivers to rest while trucks travel.
‘Semi specs are better than anything I’ve seen reported so far. Semi eng/design team work is aces, but other needs are greater right now,’ Musk tweeted in October, announcing the second delay.
He has forecast large-scale production within a couple of years.
A Tesla truck with a range of 300 to 450 miles would be able to address less than half of the total semi-truck market, estimated Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi in a note on Monday.
‘It is somewhat unclear why the company needs another major initiative … on its already full plate,’ wrote Sacconaghi.
The unveiling event offered the first look at the radical Tesla Semi big-rig after its launch was delayed amid efforts to assist Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and Model 3 ‘production hell’
Last month, Musk boasted that the truck has ‘better specs than anything that was suggested in the media to date’
The image was posted to Reddit by someone who claimed it shows the truck being delivered to ‘an undisclosed place in California where they test Tesla vehicles’
It was originally due to have been launched was pushed back to help with restoring power to Puerto Rico and to iron out ‘production hell’ with the firm’s Model 3 car.
Now, invites for the launch have finally been sent out – and reveal a new silhouette of the vehicle.
Some users claim the vehicle was accidentally been revealed on the back of a trailer last month – although Musk disputes this.
The entrepreneur has repeatedly teased the trucking industry with the prospect of a battery-powered heavy-duty vehicle.
The firm hopes that such a vehicle could compete with conventional diesels, which can travel up to 1,000 miles on a single tank of fuel.
The image was posted to Reddit by someone who claimed it shows the truck being delivered to ‘an undisclosed place in California where they test Tesla vehicles’ – although they later deleted the image.
The truck’s shape resembles the shadowy rendering Tesla previously teased.
Tesla has been making strides in self-driving technology and implementing it in an electric truck could potentially move it forward in a highly competitive area of commercial transport, also being pursued by Uber and Waymo.
Musk first said that the firm will unveil its all-electric semi truck on October 26. But, this was pushed back to November 16
Tesla hopes that such its vehicle could compete with conventional diesels, which can travel up to 1,000 miles on a single tank of fuel