TESLA Electric Truck?

[Gale Hawkins]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm incorrect on this :laughing: but wasn't the original concept for Tesla vehicles to have replaceable batteries where you could stop into a 'service station' where they would exchange a depleted battery for a fully charged one in a matter of minutes?

That was what piqued my interest in Tesla way back in 2008 when I heard it from an individual when we were discussing the possibility of NG as a motor fuel.

Tesla does have a patent on a battery swapping system but not sure it relates to their personal EV's. Recently when Youtube surfing I remember hearing sometime about battery swapping for their Semi trucks.

Should they have a truck good for 400 miles one way then they could do a 300 mile run and swap the battery packs and send it back home in a matter of minutes and repeat over and over. Factories with electric tow motors/forklifts have a battery charging room where this is done with lead acid batteries so swapping batteries is not a new concept for EV's. Having two sets of batteries and a charging station would not be cheap but could reduce their usage of diesel that is falling out of favor in spots around the earth.

Hang on for the next 20 years we will have the answers on a lot of EV questions that we are guessing about today. It is going to be an exciting ride out of this world for a few I expect.

 

[davrow]

Doesn't everybody on here have a 50 amp welder outlet?

Still in the 'when I get around to it' phase.

 

[Grumpycat]

Reading posts over in the ChevyBolt forum - a site similar to here - several posters say their Bolt is used only for daily commuting, with a different car for road trips. So they have found charging from a simple extension cord overnight that provides 4 miles for each hour of charge, works fine and they never got around to putting in the dedicated charging outlet they had thought they would need.

Bolt is restricted to citycar status for lack of the equivalent of a Supercharger network. The whole point of the Supercharger network is to facilitate travel to distant places, it is not to be your routine gas station or primary source of go-juice.

Others engage an electrician to extend their 240v clothes dryer circuit out to where they can charge from that - probably a better plan for most people.

That is a terrible idea. Must coordinate to ensure one is never drying clothes when car is plugged in. Do not believe electrical code will permit two 30A outlets on one 30A circuit. 30A provides only 24A for a continuous load. Better than a 120V outlet but only 4x better. The Right Thing To Do with an EV is to plug in every time one returns home other than when one is immediately going right back out.

Doesn't everybody on here have a 50 amp welder outlet?

Darn toot'n! A 50A outlet for the welder, a 50A outlet for the RV, and anther 50A for the EV!

 

[Grumpycat]

I still think the part about the electric vehicle conversion that might work best for us is solar panels and chargers made in the USA and when not charging our electric vehicles, feeding the electric grid to be distributed to others in need and giving us a credit as investors for doing so.

Armchair Progressives have been saying that. But being Armchair Progressives they think watching TV football makes them better experts at football than any college or professional coach no matter they have never done anything themselves.

The problem is that a utility-grade electric power plant can produce 1 more kWh (the "incremental cost" is the cost to produce a bit more than you are now) for about 1.5¢. So if you generate a PV kWh then you only save the utility 1.5¢. "Net Metering" where one gets paid the same price to put a kWh on the grid as charged to take a kWh off at a later date is a government-forced giveaway stealing from the utility. The bulk of the cost of generating electricity is the capital expense for the power grid wiring, and the cost of the generating plant. Energy costs are much less. The cost, the almighty dollar, is the most accurate metric representing consumption. Eggheads in ivory towers only guess, and they guess in such a way as to arrive at their intended result. No man is willing to work for free or give up his valuable resources for less than it is worth. Every step of production is kept honest with every man insisting on being paid his cut.

Anytime a fossil fuel is used defeats the purpose with the use of electric vehicles of any kind. Using any sconce of energy other than something that is renewable will not make the conversion worth wile and violate the basic thing we learned in Jr. High School science class, converting energy results in a loss. We want less carbon emissions, use a scarce that doesn't cause it. Hydro, solar, wind. Build these products here, provide incentives to do so. Generate new jobs and a economic benefit for this country making a investment in the future of the world. Tesla already has made some great decisions with their giant factory in northern Nevada to support their electric vehicles. Just one more step is required for them to capture the domestic solar panel market by producing high quality solar panels here in this country generating not only power, but profits by not having to pay all of that shipping from china.
Chris

Wrong. Pure coal generated electricity powering a Tesla is as good as a 30 MPG gasoline automobile. There is nothing wrong with using coal to power a Tesla. If you hate carbon then it is break even, but with the advantage the Tesla can easily switch to electricity from any other source. Gasoline vehicles are stuck on a very specific hydrocarbon cocktail and can only be weaned by 10% with ethanol with effort, much greater effort to use 85% ethanol. And that is assuming ethanol isn't worse resource- and carbon-wise than gasoline. Same problem with diesel and biodiesel.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Has anyone in 50 pages spoken about all the crankcase oil in the ICE vehicles? What do they do with it nowadays?

 

[Jstpssng]

Reading posts over in the ChevyBolt forum - a site similar to here - several posters say their Bolt is used only for daily commuting, with a different car for road trips. So they have found charging from a simple extension cord overnight that provides 4 miles for each hour of charge, works fine and they never got around to putting in the dedicated charging outlet they had thought they would need.

Others engage an electrician to extend their 240v clothes dryer circuit out to where they can charge from that - probably a better plan for most people.

Doesn't everybody on here have a 50 amp welder outlet?

Just my father's Lincoln 150.

Has anyone in 50 pages spoken about all the crankcase oil in the ICE vehicles? What do they do with it nowadays?

I bring it down to the saw shop, and they burn it in their waste oil heater.

 

[Industrial Toys]

That's great. My mechanic has a waste oil furnace too. Now, what of the other billion litres of used oil?

 

[Grumpycat]

Tesla does have a patent on a battery swapping system but not sure it relates to their personal EV's. Recently when Youtube surfing I remember hearing sometime about battery swapping for their Semi trucks.

Battery swap is dead. Its a bad idea forced by ivy tower intellectuals who think it will replicate The Gas Station model, and therefore must be The Right Way. Is a failure to understand, of limited thinking.

Lets say the battery costs $25k. Now consider how much you have to charge to rent something, anything, that is worth $25k? Then factor in the probability of abuse? Factor the cost or wear and tear? A Supercharger is said to cost $150k to service 2 cars simultaneously. When electricity costs 10¢ Tesla charges 26¢ at a Supercharger, and that is half the price others charge. So how much do you think it will cost per mile to rent a battery? Suddenly even $4/gallon California gasoline looks like a bargain.

Should they have a truck good for 400 miles one way then they could do a 300 mile run and swap the battery packs and send it back home in a matter of minutes and repeat over and over. Factories with electric tow motors/forklifts have a battery charging room where this is done with lead acid batteries so swapping batteries is not a new concept for EV's. Having two sets of batteries and a charging station would not be cheap but could reduce their usage of diesel that is falling out of favor in spots around the earth.

For what you suggest to be anywhere close to economically viable one must own the batteries on each end of the route. Have ownership in not abusing the equipment. Buy electricity from the utility at favorable rates, not from an EV electricity reseller.

If battery is half the cost of a Tesla Semi Tractor then why bother with a $1M robotic swap station? Just swap the tractor. No hassle. Low tech.

Once Upon A Time CARB issued more "Clean Vehicle" credits for EVs with proven swappable batteries, and Tesla was getting significant income selling these credits to other carmakers enabling the others to continue selling conventional vehicles. My Model S was built that way. Tesla built a couple robotic battery swap stations and publicly demonstrated (to earn their credits with CARB), then put one or two into service in California (more credits). Swap of an 85kWh battery cost $80 and one had to return to the same station to reclaim one's original battery else incur large fees to recover Tesla's battery and reinstall yours. $80 for at most 265 miles of driving. How does $5 gasoline look now? When battery swap credits started to depend on how many swap stations and swaps were performed the project ended, the cost was too great.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The way I have seen it. Those batteries are so fitted to the vehicles to lower the center of gravity and allow maximum capacity. Plus heating and cooling lines. I cannot imagine any way to exchange them easily.

I also imagine that the manufactureres are looking forward to battery replacement revenue in the future. An exchange program would mess that up.

 

[Grumpycat]

That's great. My mechanic has a waste oil furnace too. Now, what of the other billion litres of used oil?

Decades ago Our Benevolent Government required nasty labeling of motor oil which included "previously refined content". Admittedly there were shysters who would only filter used motor oil and resell claiming it was good as new, but the regulation punished those who would actually re-refine the used oil. The used oil from your engine is a better source for the refining process than crude from an oil tanker. I believe one of many necessary corrections during the Reagan Administration was to permit use of used oil for re-refining without having to affix a nasty label to the bottle of oil.

Same as reusing the lead from lead-acid batteries. As will be with lithium, nickel, and cobalt from EV batteries.