Diesel trucks cost about 17 cents/mile for maintenance. The Tesla Semi will almost certainly cost less, as its electric powertrain has few parts that need maintenance at all. So that gives a little room to make the electric semi cheaper to operate when using fast chargers.One obvious solution is to not use public fast chargers. Many companies buying these trucks want them to run cargo between their depots. The truck will load up at one depot and drive to the other.
Long haul trucks with a single driver can only drive 11 hours/day. That means they can spend 13 hours/day charging. They can easily do that at the “slower” speed of 50kW, which is slower than most cars use these days. Bulk contracts might bring that cost down below 30 cents, and start beating the price of diesel easily. The Tesla semi doesn’t have a bed, so it can’t be used for team driving, but in the future it might.
In time, the price of high power DC Fast charging will come down. Solar power will be in surplus and very cheap from breakfast until about 3pm. Electric trucks will plan to do their recharges during that time, and might even deliberately stagger them to book time at solar-powered stations. The final result will be a cost much lower than diesel and a quick payback on the cost of replacing an old polluter with the electric truck.
The other issue is the weight of the batteries. It’s an issue, as electric trucks are limited to 82,000 lbs This is why some vendors are hoping to make trucks powered with hydrogen, ammonia or green synthetic fuels. Why hydrogen does not make much sense in cars, the weight factor could tip its way in trucks. However, because hydrogen fuel cells are not very efficient, you extract only around 40% of the electricity put into the system, while batteries get over 90%.
I’m not quite sure how it works in US, but, in UK, in Ireland, with exception of some long international haulage runs, vast majority of trucks run basically 24/7. Day Shift, Night Shift drivers are changing, trucks keep going. I’m seeing a small obstacle here for Tesla’s truck…