Tesla Build Electric Semi Truck
It’s actually official now, tesla are going to build electric semis in Europe. I think this is amazing news. I can’t wait to see electric semi trucks out on the roads and not just Tesla’s return, but just to get all the trucks around the world replaced.
Emission-Free
Those stinky, diesel-black clouds of smoke. Imagine how good it’ll be when they’re all electric and actually, they can actually get up a hill.
During his visit to the Tesla Giga factory, Musk spoke about Tesla’s plans to manufacture the semi in Germany for Europe.
Elon Musk Vision for Giga Berlin
Musk actually visited the german factory, the Giga Berlin factory, after its employees had an arson attack recently which forced Tesla to stop producing cars.
To be fair, Tesla employees and Tesla in general in Germany have been attacked numerous, numerous, many, many, many times.
It’s sort of like I’m losing, losing count of how many times they’ve been attacked. I really think the german police need to take this seriously and start doing something about it. They clearly don’t really care.
Challenges and Opportunities
But anyway, based on a recording Elon Musk said in his visit at the Gigafactory in Berlin, I think it makes sense to produce a semi truck in Europe at Gigafactory, Berlin.
There is a bit of a challenge with this, though. Now, the production of the Tesla semi at Giga Berlin shows that, well, Tesla plans on really taking Europe seriously, not just having a car factory, but I think expanding their presence in Europe.
According to its expansion plans, Gigafactory Berlin wants to build another factory similar size to the existing Gigafactory to increase production capacity from 500,000 to 1 million units.
So what vehicles would they build at this second gigafactory? Well, obviously, the Tesla model two, the cheaper the $25,000 Tesla.
I’m going to guess it’ll be around maybe €25,000. So the Tesla semi, of course, would contribute.
But I’m thinking Tesla maybe don’t want to produce a million vehicles per year. Maybe, you know, a percentage of that would be, say, 20,000 electric semis per year, something like that.
At their peak point, that might represent, say, the similar amount of batteries to what you’d see in, say, about 150,000 electric cars.
Promise of Battery Innovation
That’s what I think Tesla are going to do, but I don’t know exactly. But my thoughts are Tesla would use batteries from CATL, the new lithium ion phosphate battery, which is much, much better than the older ones.
And the price is also very, very affordable. Very good chance Tesla would use those batteries to build the semi in Europe.
Because Tesla has already sent their 4680 battery production equipment. That was in Germany. They’ve already sent it back to America.
Profitability and Environmental Impact
So I believe that’s the direction that Tesla plan on going. So if you’re wondering, is it going to be profitable for Tesla to build these semis in Europe?
Well, based on current battery costs, or at least projected battery costs by the end of this year.
Projected as in the battery costs that have been disclosed to us from some of the biggest battery companies in the world, it actually is getting closer to parity now.
We’re definitely not a parity yet for a semi because the battery size in a semi is really, really big. However, running costs are so much lower. I made a video about the running costs.
The running costs are staggering. The difference between running an electric semi versus a diesel one, it’s enormous.
You get your money back literally within less than two years. That’s how long it takes to pay back the vehicle in terms of the difference in fuel costs. So they’re absolutely astronomical.
ING said this. The composition of european truck sales will change significantly over the next ten years. European truck manufacturers are being pushed to decarbonize.
They have to quickly abide by CO2 reduction targets of 15% by 2025, 30% by 2030, compared to the 20 1920 baseline. This has already prompted a big drive in the production of electric trucks.
Tesla Strategic Focus
Now Tesla’s vp, according to Tesla Rardi of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravi, confirmed months ago that the Tesla semi fleet has grown to, well, only 100 units.
So Tesla hasn’t been mass producing them at this point in time. It’s believed the big hold up here is 4680 battery cell production.
Tesla still working on cathode and anode production at its factory in Texas for those batteries. But I think Tesla want to hit volume production apparently next year, 2025.
I don’t think it’s a focus, though. I believe Tesla’s really more focused than anything else on ramping up Cybertruck production, but also building the Tesla Model two, which is clearly by far the most important car that Tesla have ever made and will ever make.
They’re saying that, you know, if they can produce 20 million cars a year in 2030, I don’t think they can.
But they’re saying if they could, that’s their goal. 10 million of those will be the Model 210 million, 50% of them.
Bright Future for Electric Semis in Europe
So, yeah, that’s clearly the focus for Tesla, not the Semi. But I think it’s awesome if we can decarbonize everything.
So if Tesla can manufacture the semi which has more more range than any other electric semi in the world, in Europe that would definitely be a product that would be in pretty high demand.
But keep in mind, in Europe you don’t need as much range either. So the semi would be perfect.