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Thousand kilometers of battery life! Musk’s electric truck business (Semi Truck) set another record.
On November 26, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confidently said in a media interview:
Today’s battery technology allows electric trucks to reach a range of 500 kilometers and 800 kilometers, which is simple and trivial. In the near future, our electric truck will have a range of up to 1,000 kilometers with a full load of 40 tons.
This latest breakthrough, compared to the current high-end Tesla version of Semi: withstanding 800 kilometers of battery life is about 25% longer. The full 40-ton load mentioned by Musk also includes Semi’s weight. But he also said that Semi’s payload should be about the same as diesel vehicles of the same grade, and the weight of the load can be 1 ton less.
For electric trucks, weight and load capacity are very important, because they determine the volume of cargo transported and profitability, which are also important indicators of the commercialization of Semi. In August this year, Bill Gates also publicly stated in response to this, “Electric trucks are big and heavy, and they will never become a solution for heavy trucks, cruise ships, and passenger planes.”
Musk turned it down and replied outright, “You don’t know anything about electric trucks.”
Just over two months after this incident, Musk once again spoke with his results, refreshing Semi’s mileage. This 1,000-kilometer Semi has begun prototype testing in Fremont, California.
Semi: a few blocks ahead of their peers
Tesla started its electric semi-trailer truck business in 2017.
Musk believes that the cost of diesel trucks is too high. On the contrary, electric trucks are not only low in implementation costs but also more environmentally friendly, which is a general trend in the future auto industry. Currently, Tesla has released two versions of the Semi, with a battery life of 300 miles (approximately 482 kilometers) and 500 miles (approximately 804 kilometers). The cost of electricity is half that of diesel, which can save more than US $ 200,000 in fuel costs. The two editions are currently priced at $ 150,000 and $ 180,000.
Cruising range is a key indicator for measuring the efficiency of electric trucks, especially in the case of limited weight and cost. From 500 kilometers, 800 kilometers, to the current 1,000 kilometers, Musk continues to break his own records.
At the same time, a series of registrations shocked many car companies. Commercial vehicle giant Daimler Truck also yelled: This violates the laws of physics!
In terms of efficiency, Tesla Semi is several blocks ahead of Daimler. When the Semi’s endurance capacity reached 800 kilometers in 2018, the Daimler FUSO eCanter small electric truck was only suitable for 100 kilometers. The manager, Martin Daum (Martin Daum) also doubted the Semi’s specifications:
If Tesla really meets this goal, we will buy two trucks, one of which will be disassembled and the other will be tested, because if this happened, we would have reached it a long time ago. The laws of physics still apply in both Germany and California, which proved impossible.
Daimler trucks aren’t the only ones harboring speculation and skepticism. For this reason, Tesla also conducted a prototype test with XPO Logistics, the largest logistics company in the United States. The results confirmed that the Semi’s cruising range is 800 kilometers.
Test leader Adam Jonas publicly reported:
Test results confirmed that the truck’s features and functions are largely in line with Tesla’s presentation, including a 5% increase in efficiency (55 mph vs. 45 mph) compared to diesel trucks. In addition, indicators such as charging time, safety / anti-interference, loading and unloading functions and payload have also reached the level of the typical diesel trucks mentioned by Tesla.
This test also helped Tesla land 2,000 Semi orders, including large companies like Ryder. However, even though the 800-kilometer Semi passed the test, the cost of just $ 180,000 is still highly questionable. Most analysts believe that in terms of current cost and weight, at least a major improvement in lithium batteries or the appearance of new batteries.
At the time, Tesla did not elaborate, but recently officially released the latest 4680 battery. According to reports, once Tesla applies the 4680 battery to the electric truck, the cruising range will increase significantly, even more than 1,000 kilometers.
Low-cost, heavy-duty battery: 4680
At the Battery Day event held a few months ago, Tesla announced the 4680 battery and its manufacturing process. The size of the battery was enlarged to 46 × 80mm, which is why it was named the Tesla 4680 battery. For the subsequent heat dissipation problem of increasing the volume, Tesla designed a small resistance desktop battery.
In general, compared to old batteries, the 4680 battery’s energy density increases by 500%, the power output increases by 600%, and the cost is reduced by 14%. There are several major updates to the manufacturing process:
- Manufactured with dry coated electrodes:Compared to the general wet process, the powder from this film-forming process is much more complicated and requires less machinery.
- Ultra high speed assembly process:The export of each line is 7 times greater than the current export. Through incremental improvements to the winding and forming process, the total cost of the battery was reduced by 18%.
- Chemical materials:Tesla designed lower-cost silicon; adopted new anode materials to reduce battery cost per kilowatt-hour by 5%; adopted a new technology to convert nickel to cathodes more efficiently, and compared to the new anodes, the cost per kilowatt-hour was reduced by 12%.
Under Musk’s plan, the 4680 cylindrical battery will produce around 10 GWh on its own in 2021, 100 GWh in 2022 and 3,000 GWh in 2030, which may occupy 30% of the final scale of the future power battery market for electric vehicles. At the same time, these batteries will also be integrated into the vehicle in different ways.
Finally, Tesla also redesigned the shape of the battery. Inspired by spaceships, turning the wings of an airplane into fuel tanks and connecting the lower part of the front and rear bodies means that the battery is not only a device to provide power, but also a part of the actual structure of the vehicle. .
This design is called a “battery structure”. They believe the new design can reduce vehicle weight by 10% and increase cruising range by 14%.
Some professionals believe that if the cost of Tesla’s battery is cut roughly in half (roughly US $ 110 / kWh), then Tesla’s cost will be roughly US $ 50 / kWh. This means that an electric car priced at $ 25,000 will be assembled at a price of $ 50 / kWh, and Tesla will only cost $ 2,500, which is only one-tenth the cost of the Model S’s largest battery.
One more thing
It seems that with the blessing of the 4680 battery, semi-mass production is just around the corner.
Prior to the 4680 release, Semi’s mass production plan experienced multiple bounces. The latest news is that the Semi will be mass produced and delivered in 2021. However, as the Semi performance continues to make new breakthroughs in all respects, it is not clear whether mass production will advance. Musk previously revealed to employees in a letter: “Now is the time for Semi to go into mass production.”
Also, industry experts have always been skeptical of Tesla Semi. Perhaps only successful mass production is Musk’s best way to show that it’s not just about talking big.
(This article was reprinted with permission from Leifeng.com; first image source: Tesla)
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