The Tesla Semi is literally here this time, it actually exists in its final form and at least some of them have been delivered to the waiting branches of PepsiCo Corporation. Tesla threw a delivery party for the Semi at its Sparks Nevada Gigafactory.
It was a fairly short and sweet event that still left a lot of details about the Semi up to the imagination but some very important details about the Tesla Semi were revealed.
How has the company managed to create an electric heavy truck that is by far the most capable on the market? So let’s talk about that crossover. We can start with the latest information that was revealed at the delivery event. Unfortunately we still don’t have any details on the cms.
Battery pack But we’ve learned a lot more about the powertrain and drive units, the original Tesla design claimed to use four electric motors, but in a revised spec sheet Tesla released earlier this year we assumed three.
They probably felt that the fourth motor was simply not necessary and it seems that Elon specified that the Semi Plaid is using the same powertrain from the Model S and Model X, hence the high-efficiency induction of three Tesla for maximum power output. Has been modified with carbon fiber on the wrapped rotors.
The carbon sleeve prevents the rotor from spinning at super high rpm and it also allows for a tighter tolerance between the stator’s magnets and the rotor’s magnets which allows more energy to be transferred to the rotor, so it is possible to use two rotors on the rear axle and mount Allows electric motors.
There is no front wheel drive and Elon specified that a very interesting modification made to the powertrain for the Semi is that the dual motor system on the rear axle only engages during acceleration, so when the Semi is cruising down the highway So it provides power d only by single motor axle. Elon says that single plated motor also has more power than conventional diesel truck engine.
What’s even more interesting is that the dual motors have an additional clutch system that will be completely disconnected from the truck’s wheels. is cruising so the motors are not drawing any energy or adding any extra load or resistance to the wheels and the clutching system is completely automatic, the driver won’t even realize that if the rear motors are needed it is automatically separates.
The system will automatically bring the motors up to speed when needed for acceleration and re-engage the clutch to deliver power to the wheels smoothly and seamlessly, this is probably a major factor in how Tesla was able to squeeze out so much grade. The capable Semi Elon has reiterated many times that the truck can go a full 500 miles on a single charge without any special modifications, with a gross weight of less than 82,000 pounds.
The company maximizing efficiency in the Semi Tesla is the maximum allowed for an electric Class A truck, which is also reinforced by the fact that every major component in the Semi drives units that pump heat to the inverters used in Tesla’s passenger vehicles. Going are all the same components so these components are already proven over millions of miles of real world use.
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Elon had a slide on screen saying it’s a beast and basically what was said about the semi is that according to tesla it outperforms any other class 8 truck in every category Is. The company showed off some of the stress tests it performed on the Semi, basically submerging it in water and driving it through dust.
Sand in the desert runs through snow the whole nine yards tesla is apparently driving these trucks 24 7 only on trips between the sparks nevada and fremont california factory to make sure elon drives a tesla semi Showed some video clips of the car passing other vehicles on a six percent incline at highway speeds while pulling a bed filled with cement blocks which looked pretty impressive.
He made special mention that not only does the electric powertrain allow the Semi to haul better than any other transport truck. Handles downshifting more safely and efficiently, so obviously slowing down an 80 000 pound truck and trailer is very difficult.
To do this with a conventional semi requires the driver to execute a series of downshifts, using engine braking in conjunction with friction brakes to kill speed while going downhill at the same time, if it is too late for the engine.
Trucks have to rely on friction brakes when they are not working properly which can easily overheat with a heavy load and a sharp incline which can lead to brake failure and a runaway transport truck is the reason That you sometimes see on the highway through the dedicated runaway truck lane mountain regenerative braking effect from the electric motors on the Tesla Semi.
Eliminates this risk from the equation, the motors are able to recapture the energy from rolling that heavy load and put it back into the battery pack, creating rolling resistance. At the same time friction leaves little work for the brakes, Elon says a Tesla Semi will go up a steep hill with cold brakes and we can’t discount the added safety bonus of the Tesla’s traction control.
The exact same technology that allows the Model S Plaid to accelerate from 0 to 60 in less than two seconds is also responsible for maintaining traction in the Cm. Allow the system to automatically prevent the jackhammer event from occurring, it should also be able to prevent the semi from climbing a snowy hill. Elon gave more details about the 500-mile drive it accomplished on a single charge with a full load.
The drive was from Fremont to San Diego California. I double checked on Google Maps and it confirms a 496 mile drive between the two city centers. Tesla also released a time-lapse video of the entire nine-hour journey to confirm that it was indeed done—world traffic without any road closures or special circumstances, the event confirmed that the Semi was a new 1000.
It’s interesting to see Tesla moving to a higher voltage for the first time, all their previous systems ran at 400 volts which was pretty standard for electric vehicles, but more recent high performance models like the Porsche Taycan and Lucid Air run at 800 and 900 volts. The respectively simple explanation here is that higher voltage equals lower resistance and this allows for faster charging speeds.
It will take full advantage of Tesla’s new megawatt charging system, the really interesting thing here is that we assumed the mega charger would be a special setup exclusively for the Semi, but it actually appears from what was said in the presentation that It’s really just the V4 Tesla Supercharger it’s not a bespoke semi-charger it’s the next generation of Tesla charging stations and Elon pointed out that the Cyber Truck will also be able to take advantage of the megawatt charging output.
This means that the Cyber Truck will use a 1000V powertrain as well. The biggest difference with the V4 charger is the liquid-cooled cable that allows for higher energy transfer while maintaining a small and subtle connector, giving you the power to power your Tesla truck. No need to worry about trying to hit the elephant’s trunk in the side.
Says these megawatt V4 superchargers are going to debut next year, some might even say at the time of the Cyber Truck release, so that’s pretty wild, so we walked out of the Tesla Semi release event, maybe that wasn’t enough as I still want to know more about the cm battery pack what cells it is using.
I’m sure we’ll find out eventually and we didn’t really get any bonus Tesla product reveals driving anything out of the back of the trailer this time but we did get a pretty cool Cybertruck Easter Egg and a V4 MW Supercharger.