Elon Musk revealed the expected capacity of Tesla Semi’s battery pack ahead of the start of production, and it is surprisingly smaller than we thought.
Back in 2017, Tesla unveiled its plan for an electric semi-truck, called the Tesla Semi, and at the time, the automaker announced two options capable of over 300 and 500 miles of range on a single charge.
They are expected to cost $150,000 and $180,000, respectively, but with an efficiency of less than 2 kWh per mile with a full load, the cost of operations is expected to be where Tesla Semi shines.
With that kind of efficiency and range, Tesla Semi was expected to have battery packs between 600 kWh and 1 MWh.
Now in a new interview with Joe Rogan, CEO Elon Musk revealed that the Tesla Semi will have a battery pack around 500 kWh:
“You want something in the order of probably a 500 kWh pack. What we have in the Model S and X is a 100 kWh pack and probably something like a 500 kWh pack in the Tesla Semi.”
However, the CEO appears to be talking about a 300-mile version of the electric truck, and he said that the longer range version would be coming later.
In response to Bill Gates’ comments about battery-electric trucks not being viable, Musk argued that adding the kind of weight that comes with a 500 kWh battery pack is not a problem.
He said that it’s not a “game-changer” when it comes to the mass, especially if you are using a structural battery pack, as Tesla unveiled at Battery Day last year.
Tesla plans to make the battery pack with its new 4680 cells a structural part of the vehicle’s chassis.
A new Tesla Semi prototype was recently spotted, and the automaker plans to start production with a few deliveries later this year.
Musk recently said that the Tesla Semi would be produced at Gigafactory Texas in Austin.
But we have also seen indications that Tesla is gearing up to have some production of the Tesla Semi at Gigafactory Nevada.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
