Study finds California’s semi truck electrification comes with enormous costs that hit consumers

Just The News ^ | March 10, 2024 11:17pm | By Kevin Killough

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The only "solution" I can see for the weight and recharge time issue is to put the batteries in a separate trailer and allow trucks to tow two trailers everywhere they need to go. This will distribute the weight and turn charging into a process of just swapping battery trailers.

In case of fire, it might be easier to separate the cab and cargo from the batteries as well. I still think battery trucks are a bad idea but if they're forced on us there are less horrible ways to set them up.

[GenXPolymath]

“The weight of the vehicles are twice what a ICE vehicles are, and as such eat tires at twice the rate, a big maintenance cost.”

I have a S60 Volvo AWD that is one inch larger in footprint size vs the Model 3 Tesla that will be replacing it as a commuter car. The Volvo is also 200 lbs heavier in curb weight. They both ride on identical 245/45R18. Tire wear will be higher on the Volvo not the Tesla by weight alone. In reality the friction brakes on the front axles of the Volvo are biased to be 60% of the braking effort vs the AWD tesla that will regenerative brake with both axles so tired wear will be even. This means that while the Volvo can only friction brake and eats pads every 50,000 miles the Telsa will likely never need brake pads replacements as it will regenerative brake every opportunity it can. I have known friends Prius to go 150,000 on the original brake pads since they regen brake first and only friction brake in panic stops.

The Tesla also starts out $30000 cheaper than the Volvo was when I bought it with similar starting miles 20-30k and two years old is where I buy all my vehicles. You can get a 2 year old model 3 for $25,000 today. I paid 58k for the nearly identical sized S60 a few years ago they are more now. Teslas have a 8 year ,120,000 battery warranty with plenty of data showing that packs are lasting well past 250,000 in commercial Uber use with frequent Supercharger use at that. I never keep a car park five years and in prior posts have demonstrated mathematically that the Tesla is half the capex per mile from mile one even with a zero resale value at its 120,000 mile mark which is never going to be true but it’s the worse case fiscal scenario. Fuel costs are 1/8th if I had to pay for power I don’t so it’s the loss of power I could sell every month that’s the marginal cost of electricity for my Tesla not the retail price from the grid. My panels have already paid for themselves and then some. They have 19 years left on their rated warranties it’s all profit from here. I got panels as a ardent prepper who happens to be best friend’s with a woman who sells and installer of solar systems after she left the oil industry as a fellow geologist. I’m also have second life cells in third party powerwalls 30kWh worth they are the primary back up to the panels and a trifuel generator backs up the powerwalls.

Mine will never be supercharged I have dual 60 amp 240v in the garage that means even an empty pack would be full charge after 8 hours of me sleeping. If I paid retail power rates it would be 8 cents per kWh. I don’t I have solar on my garage and home roof that always make more power than the structure can use so I get paid every month for my surplus into the grid.

I frequently rent EVs in Houston, Austin, and New Orleans usually a Model S for the zoom zoom aspect but if a Model 3 is cheaper on Corp rates I’ll tag one for a week rate on the cheap. I have never experienced “range anxiety” the car has tech that will find you a L2 or Supercharger when you need one. Most of the time my hotel or airbnb have dedicated parking spots with L2 reserves spots plug in every forth night or so and sleep off the hangover from the French Quarter or 6th st ATX or postoak and main in Htown. The model S has a near 400 mile range and the Model 3 has 325; for rentals in a dense city I almost never drain a pack past 50% starting at 80% even over a few days of driving in the city. Typical daily trip totals are 30 to 40 miles at most per day for food,and night life runs. With a dedicated L2 spot it takes 45 seconds to plug in when you back into the spot for the night so range anxiety is purely in the minds of those who don’t know how to use tech in modern cities saturated with L2 and superchargers.

I have taken a Model S and 3 from Htown back to Big D and also to New Orleans when I decided not to fly home. Here again the tech shows you all the available SC along your route should you need one and let’s you reserve a spot so you know it’s open when you get there. In Texas every 25 to 50 miles along the interstates are superchargers. Never spent more than 15 min at a bucees topping up ,while taking a leak, grabbing a beer, some BBQ and jerky galore. All the outlet malls have SC, so do HEBs and every Bucees between Houston and Big D there are SC every 50 miles or less same for down 10 to New Orleans it’s a none issue.

The real reason to rent a Tesla is the driving tech rentals don’t have full FSD but they do have traffic follow mode, with automatic braking and start stop in bumper to bumper traffic. If traffic stops the car keeps a 10 foot buffer and stops for you then when traffic moves again it follows the car in front at what ever speed it is moving at. You can go hands free on the interstates and also in grid lock the car simply follows the car in front or stays in the lines at the speed you set it at.

Absolute genius it the main reason I want one for Big D use traffic in the city is madness and being able to let the car handle the drive while you Netflix via the hotspot Wi-Fi is winning. Soon Starlink will be integrated to every Tesla and that means high-speed Internet anywhere, you can see the sky no matter how far outside a city.