back to article Tesla reveals a less-long-legged truck, but a bigger reservation price

Tesla's revealed more details about its forthcoming “Semi” electric truck, including a starting price of US$150,000. That sum will probably buy you a version of the vehicle with a range of 300 miles (480 km). Tesla founder Elon Musk did not mention that model at the Semi's launch, instead choosing to talk up the 500-mile ( …

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  1. Martin Gregorie

    Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

    I'm really curious about the quoted reduction in energy costs that result if you chop in your diesel truck for a Tesla.

    I've tracked my home energy costs for several years now, which show that currently I'm paying around 13.3 p/kWh for domestic electricity and 12.1 p/kWh for the petrol used in my car.

    IOW, all things being equal, the energy cost of running an electric car charged off the UK National Grid should be fractionally higher than that of a conventional petrol-driven vehicle. This is based on a liter of petrol providing 9.7 kWh of energy when used to run an IC car engine - figure taken from "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air", http://www.withouthotair.com/ and assumes that electric energy costs at charge points are not subsidized, i.e. you pay the same per kWh at the charge point as you would if you plugged your car into a 13 amp socket at home.

    We pay more in the UK for diesel fuel than petrol, but its energy content is higher, so I'm assuming as a non-diesel driver that the cost for its energy content, measured in £/kWh, is more or less the same as for petrol. If this is incorrect, kindly correct me by supplying the appropriate energy content of a liter of diesel road fuel.

    Tesla's statement that fuel costs for an electric semi are less than those for a diesel implies that the cost per kWh of diesel fuel is higher than electricity in the US. Is this true?

    Over to those living on the left side of the pond...

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

      You raise some interesting points. I would assume (and probably wrongly) that Tesla is using "average costs" of electric and diesel. Prices for fuel vary wildly from one part of the country to another and sometimes even in the same region. Same for electric prices as the price depends on the region and the supplier. Most electrical suppliers use a scaled pricing based on the kW's consumed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        No, I would assume that they are using the figures which make the comparisons most favourable to Tesla. A good PR team wouldn't even balk at using figures from different countries to make the case.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        I pay nearly $0.16/kWh for electricity here in New Jersey. I think the national average isclise to $0.11 and can be as low as $0.04 (Northwest states). That's a huge range. I also wonder how efficiency of conversion to kinetic and associated expense plays into this.

    2. analyzer

      Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

      A quick search for business costs of electricity finds this

      The average bill for UK business is £2,528 per year. The average unit price per kilowatt hour (kWh) is 9.50p. The average daily standing charge is 20p per day. Most businesses use between 15,000 and 25,000 kWh per year.

      as opposed to the reaming the general sucker gets

      Electricity is typically more than three times as expensive as natural gas – 14.37pence per kWh rather than 3.80p. It also emits nearly three times as much carbon dioxide: 0.447kg per kWh rather than 0.184kg.

      So 5p per kWh difference to the good for business and nearly 3p per kWh over petrol.

      1 litre of diesel-oil 10,0 kwh 35,9 mJ @120.3p/litre ( average )

      at 10kWh equivalent you have 93p vs 120p.

      Artics do about 41l/100km thereby costing £49.32/100km and use 410kWh which costs £38.13 in electricity. Using the usual conversion ratio for USD and GBP 1$=1£ you would need to drive 178,731 km to get the extra £20,000 back from the standard Tesla truck.

      1. Robert Heffernan

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        Then there was the statement from Elon that the power provided at the MegaCharger network being deployed for trucks would be generated from a Solar Farm attached and the power would be provided at 7c per kwh wholesale (5p at current USD/GBP conversion)

        1. inmypjs Silver badge

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          "Elon that the power provided at the MegaCharger network being deployed"

          Classic Musk bullshit. There is no MegaCharger network for trucks being deployed. If there was it wouldn't be solar powered because trucks need to operate on cloudy days and at night and in the winter.

          Power will come from the grid and any attached solar panels will be gestures doing little more than impressing eco green morons. Energy will come from the grid at grid prices and the huge power required to fast charge trucks will need the laying of high voltage cables and sub-stations - all very expensive.

          1. rh587

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            Classic Musk bullshit. There is no MegaCharger network for trucks being deployed. If there was it wouldn't be solar powered because trucks need to operate on cloudy days and at night and in the winter.

            You may have missed the sock-off big battery Musk just installed in Australia.

            Suggesting that he's literally going to plug a semi into his solar farms is a ludicrous straw-man argument.

            Solar > Battery w/mains backup > Truck

            1. inmypjs Silver badge

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "Solar > Battery w/mains backup > Truck"

              Batteries cost more than the price of mains electricity they can charge and discharge in their lifetime.

              Time shifting solar with existing battery technology isn't even close to being economical.

              So no Tesla will not install batteries at their solar sites. They will use the grid as a huge battery someone else is paying for like they do at the moment, but, the more solar capacity is installed the more obvious this rip off becomes and it is not sustainable.

              1. jmch Silver badge

                Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

                "Batteries cost more than the price of mains electricity they can charge and discharge in their lifetime."

                *citation needed

            2. Robert Heffernan

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              Tesla owns Solar City, so they have Solar Panels on-tap. Buy some land in a nice open location perfectly suited for Solar and build a massive farm. It doesn't matter where the MegaChargers are located, so long as they connect to the same grid as the farm, then your trucks are solar powered.

              The argument about Diesel vs Electric is moot, it doesn't matter what one is more expensive, the fact of the matter is, Diesel needs to die and it needs to do it now. The climate is already screwed, Where I live in Australia is already in the peak summer temperature range but it's still only spring. The time for having a hissy-fit about moving away from Fossil Fuels to Renewables is over.

              Electric vehicles are just going to get better and better, efficiency and range will get better all the time and people will one day only see ICE vehicles in museums or owned by collectors.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            So what if the trucks need grid power? Using solar etc. offsets the energy use even if they aren't being directly charged by the sun. An electron is an electron. It doesn't matter where it came from.

            Here in Australia, a large number of businesses, homes, farms, schools etc. have solar arrays that feed back into the grid. Of course those places aren't being powered by solar during the night, but they have offset an amount of energy during the day.

            Don't forget that big battery array recently completed in SA to help with base load at different times of day.

            I also really have to say that the cost for the trucks seems fairly reasonable in comparison to the cost of a new diesel truck, and have to agree with Tesla that in many cases the price difference in energy makes them an economical choice, especially when it comes to the vast number of trucks active in and around cities which are forced to spend large amounts of time in traffic, including stopped at traffic lights wasting fuel idling.

      2. jmch Silver badge

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        " you would need to drive 178,731 km to get the extra £20,000 back from the standard Tesla truck"

        Without going into your figures, 180km still seems like a value proposition. These semis easily do a few 100km/day (max allowed in the US is 11 hours driving, so can go into 6-800km a day for a long haul trip). Even averaging 300km/day and operating only 260 days a year, you would drive 180k km in about 3 years. I suspect for long-haul fleets who can rotate drivers and have shift drivers working overnight or weekends, and if Tesla's reliability claims are correct, they could probably do 180k km in a year.

        1. Lomax
          Trollface

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          > 180k km

          That's 180 Mm (megametres) shurley.

          Also, I find it hugely entertaining to see how the mere mention of the possibility that maybe perhaps the internal combustion engine will not remain the most efficient road transportation power source for all eternity brings out an army of right-wing nutters apoplectic with rage. Careful you don't burst a vessel.

          ...battery...

          ...solar panels...

          ...LGBT...

          ...Obama...

          ...United Nations...

          :D

        2. Daniel 18

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          "(max allowed in the US is 11 hours driving, so can go into 6-800km a day for a long haul trip)"

          Actually it is more like 11 hours driving at 100 kph - 1,100 km.

          Long haul trucks tend to carry fuel intended to keep them rolling for a day's work... and many interstates have a speed limit of 65 mph = 105 kph, and I have often seen big rigs rolling at 125 kph or more, in 'convoys', not quite nose to tail.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        "Using the usual conversion ratio for USD and GBP 1$=1£ you would need to drive 178,731 km to get the extra £20,000 back from the standard Tesla truck."

        100k miles for a commercial truck is nothing. Some heavily used long distance ones do that in 6 months.

      4. Luiz Abdala

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        And 178,731 km is next to nothing on the lifetime of a semi-truck. Trucks with 200,000 km on them are sold as "semi-new", no pun intended.

        This thing will pay for itself much faster than any Diesel ever would.

    3. inmypjs Silver badge

      Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

      "diesel fuel is higher than electricity in the US. Is this true"

      Diesel is probably less taxed and cheaper in the states.

      The efficiency of battery and electric drive-train is probably around 80% while I doubt diesel engines in trucks break 20% on average. Comparing energy costs without considering conversion efficiencies is ridiculous.

      I also note Musk still thinks he can con people into risky Tesla investment by paying in advance. Not that a few $20k deposits are going to have much impact on the $480k Tesla have being burning every hour for the last 12 months.

      1. swissarmyknife

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        Diesel is significantly higher here in the U.S, and electricity significantly cheaper in most areas. Diesel is running about 3pound an imperial gallon here, whereas I pay about 4pence per kwh (if the pound is still about 1.3x)

        1. jmarked

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          Still, so much people prefer/enjoy diesel vehicles, especially trucks. My uncle is one of them, recently bought this Ram diesel project, put some aggressive tires, forged wheels and led light bars. This is his 4th diesel rig and a weekend offroad toy.

    4. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

      Diesel has a volumetric energy density of 9.96kWh/L, but most of that is used to heat the atmosphere. Only about 20% is used to move the vehicle. You can see why here.

      To compare with an electric vehicle, we need to add about 0% diesel spilled when refuelling, and 20% for heating the battery and charger when charging. Standby for electric is about 0.05% (one day of self-discharge in the battery). Accessories get powered direct from the battery in electric, but for diesel we get losses in the engine and alternator included in the 2%, so allocating 1% for accessories in an electric vehicle is a fair guess. An electric motor is about 90% efficient, so about 70% of the electricity you pay for reaches the driver train compared to 19-25% for diesel.

      A diesel drive chain converts between ⅕ and ⅓ of its 19-25% input into heat. Electric does not need a clutch or gearbox, so I will guess about a tenth. The problem is it is a tenth of 70%, so it looks bad compared to the 5-6% in the diagram for diesel. Likewise the figures for aerodynamic, rolling and braking have to be scaled up by 63/13 (or 63/20 for motorway). That is a good thing! The entire purpose of a vehicle is to hammer the road and kick the air around. That gives a whopping 29% for brakes (6.3% motorway), and regenerative braking puts about half of that back into the battery.

      For a fair comparison, you should be dividing your electricity bill by about 3 for motorways and about 5 for towns - then budgeting for a new battery every 2 to 4 years (longer if you do not drive the vehicles complete range every day).

      1. dan1980

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        The turn-around time will also factor in to calculations so an equally (if not more) important part is really the charging that Tesla is claiming - 400mi worth of charge in 30 mins.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        I would have expected electric vehicles to deliver energy recovery from going downhill and braking - this is less easy to quantify but certainly adds a fair bit of range in cars.

        The posts above seems to assume the drive train behaviour is a precise match to traditional IC.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          "I would have expected electric vehicles to deliver energy recovery from going downhill and braking"

          Downhill yes, but the energy consumed in braking usually exceeds the rate at which it can be fed back to the battery.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            Don't they usually have a capacitor bank for this? This energy is then fed back into the battery (or the motor).

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "Don't they usually have a capacitor bank for this? This energy is then fed back into the battery (or the motor)."

              Not in cars. You need truck size vehicles with truck loads and speeds to make it worthwhile at the moment.

            2. JeffyPoooh
              Pint

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              MO asked, "...have a capacitor bank for this?"

              Understand that a Farad is one amp for only one second.

              By way of comparison, a 1000mAh battery is one amp (1000mA) for ONE HOUR!!!

              Even when supercaps get to 60sx60m=3600F, they're presently much larger size than an equivalent battery.

              So they're still closer to greenwash decoration than practical at this point in time.

              Maybe next year.

          2. Timmy B

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            @Voyna i Mor

            "Downhill yes, but the energy consumed in braking usually exceeds the rate at which it can be fed back to the battery."

            No. Under breaking or going downhill we can generate charge for the battery in our leaf. On one part of one journey we do a long hill and will generate visible charge on the meters.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "No. Under breaking or going downhill we can generate charge for the battery in our leaf. On one part of one journey we do a long hill and will generate visible charge on the meters."

              Did you actually read my post before disagreeing with it?

              I agreed that going downhill allows for regenerative charging.

              I merely pointed out that when braking* it is often not possible to recover more than a fraction of the energy because braking would usually generate more power than the battery will accept.

              Your Leaf I think has an 80kW motor. The mass is 1.5t. The maximum rate at which the system can accept charge is 44kW (Nissan's specs.) with a short term peak of 50kW. When at 70% charge it's limited to 30kW.

              Consider braking on a motorway from 70mph or approx. 30m/s. If you applied the brakes at 0.2g, you will decelerate about 2ms-2. That's an initial 87kW, roughly two to three times what the charging circuit can handle.

              These numbers agree pretty well with what Nissan actually claim which is up to 39% energy recovery from braking.

              *braking, brakes. Please? It's causing me to break out in OCD.

          3. Steve Knox

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            "I would have expected electric vehicles to deliver energy recovery from going downhill and braking"

            Downhill yes, but the energy consumed in braking usually exceeds the rate at which it can be fed back to the battery.

            Yes and no. It all depends on how quickly you brake and the conversion efficiency of the motor. Truckers generally learn to accelerate slower (due to necessity) and decelerate slower (due to safety) than the average motorist: they may be some of the best candidates for efficient electric vehicle driving.

          4. Robert Heffernan

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            "Downhill yes, but the energy consumed in braking usually exceeds the rate at which it can be fed back to the battery."

            True, but feeding a bank of Super Capacitors to capture the energy rapidly then trickle back into the batteries / provide peak energy for acceleration would help greatly.

          5. M man

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            That applies to smaller 30kWh batteries but this truck apparently has as much as 1000kWh

            Basically it will consume any and all breaking energy tesla throws at it.

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          "I would have expected electric vehicles to deliver energy recovery from going downhill and braking - this is less easy to quantify but certainly adds a fair bit of range in cars."

          This is already accounted for in the maximum range figure given in the marketing.

      3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        "...then budgeting for a new battery every 2 to 4 years (longer if you do not drive the vehicles complete range every day)."

        And for anyone planning on multiple 'leccy trucks, the initial one off cost of plumbing in a couple of MW of charging points. You need to plan for multiple trucks being at home base at the same time with turnaround deadlines to meet. And maybe further upgrades if expanding the ;leccy fleet/replacing more diesels/petrol trucks. Depending on the yard location, that might be a large expense.

        I was just watching an episode of Supertruckers the other night. That company has a fleet of 90 trucks and one of their jobs involved 8 trucks shifting 16 heavy tracked army vehicles in a single job. That's 8 trucks that need to start the job fully charged. Their base is a farm in the middle of nowhere. Plumbing in an extra multi-MW power line is not going to be cheap.

    5. Timmy B

      Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

      Your calculations ignore some things.

      You are ignoring some technologies that exist in electric cars that affect your maths. Regenerative breaking has quite an effect in our Leaf - something that doesn't exist in ICE cars. Also we can pick and choose the time of day the car draws power meaning we can take advantage of late night tariffs. We can also use free charging that is available in some places. If you have an EV then you would be daft to charge it from a standard 13amp plug all the time - we have a wall socket that does 32amp. We traded in a similar sized car for out Leaf and once you include tax, fuel prices, reduced prices for MOT and servicing (so much less to service or go wrong on an EV) we a saving iro £20 a month. That may not seem much but that INCLUDES the payments for a brand new car..... (and before you ask - we do the same miles including a daily 60 mile commute).

      1. Not also known as SC

        Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

        @Timmy B

        "Also we can pick and choose the time of day the car draws power meaning we can take advantage of late night tariffs. We can also use free charging that is available in some places."

        The question I keep wondering about is once EV become the norm, will there be late night tariffs any more or will governments increase tax levels / electric companies increase proces to 'moderate' demand? I also see free charging points not lasting long after EV become mainstream. EVs may have a lot going for them but I wouldn't rely on the cost of energy remaining cheap once mainstream.

        1. Timmy B

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          @Not also known as SC

          I agree with a lot of that. And it all adds up to why we've got the Leaf on PCP. It's all a bit of a wild west as far as EVs are concerned here in the UK and we could either go the Norway way and have them well supported by government and infrastructure or we could end up with them so taxed that they become too costly to drive. I wonder what way the UK government is likely to go? For sure once we're all driving electric there will have to be tax in place of some sort - perhaps according to battery size and power output - a zoe pays less than a tesla.

          1. ukaudiophile

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            I have also recently purchased an EV on PCP simply because for a car which I wanted and liked, the taxation structure for a company means that the government hammers you for anything other than the slowest, boring most insipid box on the market. On the other hand the government is practically giving you money to buy an EV. My mistrust of this government, however, is limitless, so I really don't want to commit to buying one until I am very, very sure my investment is protected with long term promises to make running one cost effective for me.

            It appears that people are just starting to wake up, however, to what the real cost of the war on motorists which has been waged for the last 25 years is really going to cost the government. Currently from VED & fuel duty motorists (and I include trucking companies in this) pay £77 billion into the government coffers. If the government get's it's way and persecutes the ICE driver off the road, then the government is going to need to replace that £77 billion somewhere, just to put that into context, Uk education spending in 2016 was £85.7 billion, and believe my that putting up basic rate taxation is not going to be on the cards, it would be far too toxic a plan, so somewhere we're going to need to make cut backs.

            Looks like the government should really be promoting those Range Rover V8, Aston Martin and new TVR sales to protect it's revenue base!

          2. ukaudiophile

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            @Timmy B

            "For sure once we're all driving electric there will have to be tax in place of some sort - perhaps according to battery size and power output - a zoe pays less than a tesla."

            I can see your thinking with this, but I cannot see this being even contemplated in the next 10 years. As far as the government is concerned, all EV's are the same, they all contribute to making the emissions figures and air quality figures look good. The last thing you want are potential Tesla drivers going and buying Porsche Panamera's because there's no tax advantages. The other issue is that Tesla are backed by US corporate lawyers, do we really want the government tied up in litigation for years for discriminatory practices against them? After 2019 do you really think this government is going to risk discriminating against a US company and favouring a French company like Renault given what a great job EU countries are doing at turning the UK population against them?

            I think for the next 10 - 20 years all EV's are probably going to be judged alike, by which time I am sure that EV's will be so good compared with ICE vehicles that most people will buy them anyway as they're simply better. If you think about it a 400 mile range is more than enough for most people, and great strides have been made in fast charging over the last decade, I am sure the prospect of being able to hammer 200 miles of range into a battery pack in 10 - 15 minutes will not be beyond the realms of possibility by 2039.

            1. jmch Silver badge

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "After 2019 do you really think this government is going to risk discriminating against a US company and favouring a French company like Renault"

              France has committed to phase out ICE cars completely, and Renault is a leader in EV technology. Just sayin'

              1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

                "France has committed to phase out ICE cars completely, and Renault is a leader in EV technology. Just sayin'"

                As has the UK, by 2040. You can only imagine the tax/duty penalties that will be ramping steeply upwards in the meantime, especially after 2030.

            2. fandom

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "EU and national governments are united in the belief that their primary purpose is the crusade against climate change"

              No, not really, but they have certainly been united into importing a little oil as possible.

              In case you haven't noticed those imports are expensive, sure they may just seem like a billion here a billion there, but pretty soon they begin to add up to real money.

          3. Not also known as SC
            Pint

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            Hope you get to enjoy cheap running costs though for the foreseeable future :-)

          4. Hankie

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            I think you'll find when EV's are common place the government will bring in toll roads everywhere!

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "I think you'll find when EV's are common place the government will bring in toll roads everywhere!"

              You're probably right. A whole new system of ANPR cameras and other shit that will roll out slowly, fail, be rolled out again, cost 5x the original estimate and never actually work properly.

              Meanwhile, in other countries, they will mandate that all EVs, which by default will be talking to their respective motherships, will have to declare all usage and routing data and quite cheaply will provide accurate usage data for road pricing charges with no additional infrastructure.

          5. JeffyPoooh
            Pint

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            Timmy B suggested, "here in the UK and we could either go the Norway way ..."

            And convert the UK to hydro, the Norway way?

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Thumb Up

          EVs may have a lot going for them but I wouldn't rely on the cost of energy remaining cheap...

          A thoroughly sensible comment, Not also known as SC, and not something I'd thought of. One of my prized and rare Tea Hound upvotes heading your way.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

          The whole debate about electricity versus diesel prices illustrates some obvious stupidity at Tesla. Why launch an electric truck in the market that has the lowest diesel fuel duties of any major developed country? This automatically makes the financials significantly worse.

          Even in the most expensive states, the federal and state fuel duties are in the range of a third to a fifth of those prevailing in Europe. In Europe, the EU and national governments are united in the belief that their primary purpose is the crusade against climate change, many of their populations support that view, subsidies are regarded as necessary and indeed desirable to push people towards electric vehicles. Added to which I'll wager that heavy truck journeys will be shorter in Europe (geographically more compact than the US, lower driver hours limits, better rail options). With EU governments now paranoid about urban air quality, there's another reason for EU truck operators to go electric, with various cities have "congestion" or emissions top up charges that EVs are usually exempt from.

          Considering he isn't a US native, Musk appears to have happily adopted the US view that the entire universe rotates around the country (if anything other than terrorists and sand exist outside of the US, that is).

          1. thenitz

            Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

            There's nothing stopping Tesla to sell their vehicle in Europe in 2 or 3 years when production of the semi starts. But they had to launch the vehicle in the US because that's the best place to create hype.

            Their priority is now gathering funds to sustain their growth. They can't get those funds by selling cars and trucks because they aren't able to produce them on a large scale. So they keep announcing products even if they know very well they can't build them in the near future. Hype helps increase or at least maintain the stock price and make funding easier.

            Eventually, if the gamble pays out, they'll get to build those trucks and sell them to whoever is willing to pay. If Europe is a better market, they'll sell a lot of them there. Same as they do now with their Model S and Model X.

            1. jmch Silver badge

              Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

              "There's nothing stopping Tesla to sell their vehicle in Europe in 2 or 3 years when production of the semi starts"

              Also, the drivers' seat is in the middle so they don't need to produce a different version for UK (or Japan, Australia etc)

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