Pepsi fleet semi spotted today near firebaugh, CA

How does that even work when I can't get 500 miles for my ev. That thing has to tens of thousands of pounds ?

This isn’t Schrödinger’s truck. Is it spotted or not?

It has a 1 MWh battery or the equivalent of 12 Model Y battery packs. Yes it is heavy, EV semis are allowed an extra 4000 lbs of weight.

I see these in Fresno

Your EV is smaller and doesn’t cost $250k+ Weight for the 500mi version is supposedly around 23,000lb.

It’s wild I saw a guy on Reddit complaining about a $215k Winnebago calling it useless crap. Shoulda spent a little extra and bought one of these to live in, could duplex it and turn the other half into a traveling hostel for dirt bags. I’m off tangent but worse ways to spend $250k

I understand the batteries alone weigh 10-11,000 lbs

bro gonna be charging outside buccees

I also had parsing errors at first glance and was wondering how a full picture of the truck doesn’t quite count as spotting it.

Dirt bags living in a one of kind Tesla EV Semi 😁where do I sign up?

Same reason why a larger phone has better battery life even though it has a larger screen that requires more power

Batteries. Lots of them.

Last I read there are 83 in actual operation.

900kwh battery

Idk why they couldn't have invested in a platform for buses, garbage trucks, beverage trucks, and other local trucks where it is a lot more practical to go electric in the short term.

Those are usually still a V3, that would take forever to charge back up I bet, even then a V4 SC isn’t all that much faster🤔

Probably due to existing government contracts but that can end and when that happens Tesla will prob pursue those avenues as well

Buses and garbage trucks are municipal, so budgets are already tight and tend to be more focused on cost of purchase. Semis are corporate and they are able to think about TCO. Also you have a limited number of charging facilities you have to set up relative to distance travelled.

I would imagine that there also would be some pushback from unions in the municipalities that have unionized bus/truck drivers. Semis make more sense given the whole model is owner/operator, but a union will push back (as it is their job) when a new tool reduces demand for labor (see: FSD)

You could buy a [Lucid Air GT or Chevy Silverado EV](https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=48371&id=48698) which both have 500 miles of range.

Except we have electric garbage trucks and buses servicing Toronto already. Municipalities are already buying in, it's way better for everyone. Less maintenance, noise, brake dust, etc. You lose the market when you don't show up.

My guess is those are from places (and existing one in US too) are from firms that just adapted electric to existing diesel vehicle platforms they already have (an existing bus or garbage trucks company). Tesla prefers to engineer from the ground up. They also need money for R&D. So an existing bus company still has revenue coming in from ICE vehicles. How quickly they can get to pilot and get commitments from purchasers has to factor into what product streams they go into.

You probably don't need 500+ miles a trip...

With europe pushing toward sustainability there is a ton of market for municipal electric vehicles. In Poland I already saw electric busses on the streets operating as normal. In my small city. And Poland is probably one of the least proactive in the area.

My understanding is that in Europe, retirement costs are generally a national concern. In US, pension costs, especially for municipal workers, are borne by the individual city/state. And over promising to union combined with kicking the can down the road in covering costs has constrained capital purchasing. And as mentioned, electric vehicles still have a high initial cost even if TCO is better for electric. Business tend to think longer term because they can raise prices easier than municipalities can raise taxes. Capital costs can also be depreciated by businesses.

I'm not sure what this has to do with cities buying bussess. Retirement in most European countries is funded on national level. Busses and other municipal vehicles are being bought by local goverment. Completely different budgets.

My point is in US (because reply above referred to Poland), local government budgets are tight because of retirement costs. Which goes back to why Tesla started with semi trucks, a bigger and more reliable customer base.

Most semi trucks drive a route which can be covered by the Tesla semi. We think cross country, but as I recall, 80% of the trips are the shorter milk runs similar to what Pepsi does. They don’t drive their potato chips and sodas across the country.

Has anyone that follows closer heard how the drivers are liking them overall? Or the feedback from the few companies testing them. Would love to see EV semi's become the norm.

Now, why is the Pepsi truck carrying the Life water?

PepsiCo owns LifeWTR and many other brands

Oooooohhhhhh ok, thanks. Didn’t know that

Except cost of maintenance is also in the budget, investment in better/new/replacement equipment is always considered. Breakdowns and downtime for required upkeep will weigh on a decision like that, and an easy plug and play, modular, type platform would go far in many of those categories.

Lmao bro ok but I want more than 280 that's for sure. Let's not be ridiculous. More is better.

These days, normal diesel powered trash trucks cost around $400,000. An EV version would be closer to $750,000

Outside of batteries, EVs cost less than ICE cars. Batteries now are about $100/kwh. A 300kwh battery would easily handle 130 miles a day, for the cost of $30k added to the vehicle. Garbage trucks get 3mpg. They easily spend $40k on fuel each year on the average 130 mile route. Not to mention the savings on maintenance. The issue is, current truck makers don't have an expertise in EVs. Or the economies of scale for cheaper batteries. So right now they're charging a buttload for what they do make. That's why Tesla could have made an impact. Even if they would have just partnered with existing brands and made them "Tesla powered"

Why is the cabin so long? It seems they are wasting valuable vehicle length.

I saw one once in Victorville and then never again. I love these things

Established truck manufacturers have been building EVs for years. Most have multiple models. The future of trucking is already here. Musk announced the Semi in 2017. It’s still not in general production. Not sure what is taking so long.