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Tesla’s Newest Electric Vehicle Could Jolt the Trucking Industry

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philb2

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/...teslas-semi-truck.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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As the truck climbed a steep hill that separates Ontario from greater Los Angeles, Mr. Torres marveled at its power. “It hauls the load like nothing, just up,” he said from the padded driver’s seat, which sits atop a shock absorber that smooths out the bumps. Screens on either side of the steering wheel provided a view of the traffic around him.
 
This could be one of the few actual hits from modern Tesla (even if it was announced several years ago) precisely because it's all about function. Big rig drivers and corporate clients don't care about sci-fi steel bodies or self-driving features that have been stuck in limbo for years They want range, power, and lower costs. That's what the Semi delivers, at least from what we've seen so far.

There's also been talk of Tesla returning to its plans for a cheap EV, so hopefully the company is leaving its Cybertruck era and making vehicles people actually want to use. Once Elon scales back his fanciful dreams of pivoting to robots almost overnight, at least...
 
I thought that EV pickup trucks specifically had issues in the hauling department due to their weight working against them when it comes to physics. Odd that a semi would get around that.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I thought that EV pickup trucks specifically had issues in the hauling department due to their weight working against them when it comes to physics. Odd that a semi would get around that.
Click to expand...
From reporting years ago the plan was for the semis to come with a battery sized to do hundreds of miles with a loaded trailer vs the various pickups (tesla and otherwise) having batteries sized for people hauling duty.

ICE pickups either have lousy range between gas/diesel stops when towing at ~33% of nominal MPG or oversized fuel tanks so they can still go a good distance between stops despite the low fuel economy. (And people who do long distance towing with diesel pickups often supplement with a semi-sized fuel tank in the bed so they can fuel up in whatever state is cheapest along the way.) The main difference is that a 2x-3x size fuel tank is only marginally more expensive since it's still just sheet metal the cost is from filling it up, a 2-3x battery costs 2-3x as much because the battery is the expensive part.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I thought that EV pickup trucks specifically had issues in the hauling department due to their weight working against them when it comes to physics. Odd that a semi would get around that.
Click to expand...
Air drag of a pick-up trailer setup could be worse than the electric truck here, looking at them.

The way the battery scale and its weight versus payload is probably much better, as weight rise a lot for little more air drag
 
Diesel engines are not exactly light, so a large battery pack may not be a issue.
 
Gideon said:
Diesel engines are not exactly light, so a large battery pack may not be a issue.
Click to expand...
It's the power density of hydrocarbons that will keep electric class eight trucks off the highway for some time yet, they're probably great for city stuff with less mileage and more stops. Lithium ion batteries are 250Wh/kg(ish) they can be a fair bit better, up to 400Wh/kg, but diesel fuel is 12,000+Wh/kg. It's a really huge difference, even the inherent inefficiency of internal combustion is still going to get you 10X the energy available than battery electric vehicles can get you. A heavier vehicle hauls less cargo and an electric truck takes a lot longer to charge than a diesel takes to refuel, all that makes the unit economics really hard to justify unless it's just a few units for PR.

There are batteries with extremely high energy densities that rival diesel, but they're usually quite small, very hot, and I haven't heard of any that are reusable.

I find the idea of electric trucks fascinating, once the weight is a little less extreme in terms of energy storage think of a truck that has batteries under the trailer or a trailer that isn't just pulled around, it pushes as well.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
It's the power density of hydrocarbons that will keep electric class eight trucks off the highway for some time yet, they're probably great for city stuff with less mileage and more stops. Lithium ion batteries are 250Wh/kg(ish) they can be a fair bit better, up to 400Wh/kg, but diesel fuel is 12,000+Wh/kg. It's a really huge difference, even the inherent inefficiency of internal combustion is still going to get you 10X the energy available than battery electric vehicles can get you. A heavier vehicle hauls less cargo and an electric truck takes a lot longer to charge than a diesel takes to refuel, all that makes the unit economics really hard to justify unless it's just a few units for PR.

There are batteries with extremely high energy densities that rival diesel, but they're usually quite small, very hot, and I haven't heard of any that are reusable.

I find the idea of electric trucks fascinating, once the weight is a little less extreme in terms of energy storage think of a truck that has batteries under the trailer or a trailer that isn't just pulled around, it pushes as well.
Click to expand...

I don't think they have marketed as a long haul truck replacement, but smaller in state runs, which it could handle. But if battery tech keeps advancing than it's just a matter of time before diesel will get replaced, especially at current prices.
 
Gideon said:
I don't think they have marketed as a long haul truck replacement, but smaller in state runs, which it could handle. But if battery tech keeps advancing than it's just a matter of time before diesel will get replaced, especially at current prices.
Click to expand...
And if the Strait of Hornuz is still closed 6-8 months from now, imagine the price of diesel (or gas).
 
Aurelius said:
This could be one of the few actual hits from modern Tesla
Click to expand...

So some of the best selling cars in the world aren't a hit?

Big rig drivers and corporate clients don't care about sci-fi steel bodies or self-driving features that have been stuck in limbo for years They want range, power, and lower costs.
Click to expand...

I have a low 11 second daily driver with zero running costs over 40k miles. It's faster, cheaper, AND gets better range than my comparably powered sports cars (E85 conversion BMW M cars). Range, power, and lower costs have been thoroughly taken care of.
 
Gideon said:
I don't think they have marketed as a long haul truck replacement, but smaller in state runs, which it could handle. But if battery tech keeps advancing than it's just a matter of time before diesel will get replaced, especially at current prices.
Click to expand...

IIRC a few years back they were talking about 300-400 miles fully loaded for the top end model. That'd be an ~5 hour out and back between warehouses and fit reasonably well in the 11 hours driving max work day for someone who sleeps in their own bed every night. (Not sure how much safety margin for traffic/accidents need to be built into that sort of schedule.)

Initial sales would mostly be to companies shipping between their own warehouses because semi-class batteries will need a much higher power charging system than the one currently build out on interstates for cars.

They'd need to at least have a minimum spec version of that sort of charging network up and running in a few years; because a lot of the big logistics companies replace their fleets before they're driven into the ground; and will need public charging to be available so there is a viable market for their used vehicles.
 
Aurelius said:
This could be one of the few actual hits from modern Tesla (even if it was announced several years ago) precisely because it's all about function. Big rig drivers and corporate clients don't care about sci-fi steel bodies or self-driving features that have been stuck in limbo for years They want range, power, and lower costs. That's what the Semi delivers, at least from what we've seen so far.

There's also been talk of Tesla returning to its plans for a cheap EV, so hopefully the company is leaving its Cybertruck era and making vehicles people actually want to use. Once Elon scales back his fanciful dreams of pivoting to robots almost overnight, at least...
Click to expand...
Volvo has several hundred out, so Tesla is likely playing catch up.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/a63106904/volvo-electric-semi-trucks-progress/

“But Volvo Trucks has now revealed that its Class 8 VNR Electric models, which have a range of up to 275 miles, have covered over 10 million miles since the company began taking orders in December 2020. And the number of such Volvo Class 8 trucks on the roads in the US and Canada at the moment is approaching 600 units.”

That was 1.5 years ago.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I thought that EV pickup trucks specifically had issues in the hauling department due to their weight working against them when it comes to physics. Odd that a semi would get around that.
Click to expand...
F-150 Lightning has a payload capacity of 1900 to 2300 lbs, compared to the gas version's 1400-2400 lbs range. Payload isn't an issue, range when towing is.
paradoxical said:
So some of the best selling cars in the world aren't a hit?



I have a low 11 second daily driver with zero running costs over 40k miles. It's faster, cheaper, AND gets better range than my comparably powered sports cars (E85 conversion BMW M cars). Range, power, and lower costs have been thoroughly taken care of.
Click to expand...
Modern Tesla. The best selling cars are rehashes of existing stuff, nothing new. The Cybertruck is a flop, Robotaxi is still just a concept car, what's with the massive robot push, and the Model 2 is still vaporware.
 
The Model 2 is gone, he fired the entire team. I can't say how much I was looking forward to a slightly smaller 3 hatchback with the (basically) same drivetrain.
 
Tsumi said:
F-150 Lightning has a payload capacity of 1900 to 2300 lbs, compared to the gas version's 1400-2400 lbs range. Payload isn't an issue, range when towing is.
Click to expand...
DanNeely said:
ICE pickups either have lousy range between gas/diesel stops when towing at ~33% of nominal MPG or oversized fuel tanks so they can still go a good distance between stops despite the low fuel economy. (And people who do long distance towing with diesel pickups often supplement with a semi-sized fuel tank in the bed so they can fuel up in whatever state is cheapest along the way.) The main difference is that a 2x-3x size fuel tank is only marginally more expensive since it's still just sheet metal the cost is from filling it up, a 2-3x battery costs 2-3x as much because the battery is the expensive part.
Click to expand...
I was implying the weight (and range loss) due to the battery when I made that comment. I already know EVs have much more torque for hauling. From what I had read, EV trucks end up having to be so heavy with a sufficiently large battery to haul the weight that it just doesn't make sense because the weight of the battery is working against your ability to haul. Like EVs are currently in a great spot for just moving people. A Tesla Model 3 with single motor has great acceleration and 360 mile range, and most other EVs have broken the 300 mile range barrier. For the most part I would call that "good enough". My ICE car tops out at 360 mile range on a full tank. Maybe hybrids do a lot more.

With hauling the real issue is the significant amount of investment to be able to move that weight for long enough. EV recharging takes a lot longer than gas refueling, so I just don't see how this is ever going to be feasible, until we get battery energy density to like 2-4x++ what it is right now. And at that point, an "EV truck" wouldn't even be that special. EVs would be even more widespread.

What I think Tesla needs to do in this case is decouple their FSD and smart driving capabilities from the need of the vehicle to be an EV. I know they won't do that, but after recently test driving a Tesla with FSD, I am legitimately considering leasing one just because the FSD tech has gotten a lot more amazing. Companies would probably pay pretty good money for just the supervised FSD making things easier for their drivers, and that's a lot easier than trying to sell, "well yeah but now you need to completely restructure to be an EV truck."
 
Aurelius said:
This could be one of the few actual hits from modern Tesla (even if it was announced several years ago) precisely because it's all about function. Big rig drivers and corporate clients don't care about sci-fi steel bodies or self-driving features that have been stuck in limbo for years They want range, power, and lower costs. That's what the Semi delivers, at least from what we've seen so far.

There's also been talk of Tesla returning to its plans for a cheap EV, so hopefully the company is leaving its Cybertruck era and making vehicles people actually want to use. Once Elon scales back his fanciful dreams of pivoting to robots almost overnight, at least...
Click to expand...

The guy gets bored easily which is why he promises big and then delivers mediocre. He can't keep his attention on anything long enough to complete. Not that he's doing the work, he's just constantly distracting the teams who are doing it with his next big promise.
 
They've been working on this for over decade now. Why has this taken so long to come to market? Now everyone has caught up to Tesla.
 
Absalom said:
They've been working on this for over decade now. Why has this taken so long to come to market? Now everyone has caught up to Tesla.
Click to expand...
Because it's a POS. There's a reason all the testing they did was with Frito Lay(chips aren't very heavy). Range is awful at max payload, and lets talk about max payload, the battery is so heavy it's tons less diesel tractors.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I was implying the weight (and range loss) due to the battery when I made that comment. I already know EVs have much more torque for hauling. From what I had read, EV trucks end up having to be so heavy with a sufficiently large battery to haul the weight that it just doesn't make sense because the weight of the battery is working against your ability to haul. Like EVs are currently in a great spot for just moving people. A Tesla Model 3 with single motor has great acceleration and 360 mile range, and most other EVs have broken the 300 mile range barrier. For the most part I would call that "good enough". My ICE car tops out at 360 mile range on a full tank. Maybe hybrids do a lot more.

With hauling the real issue is the significant amount of investment to be able to move that weight for long enough. EV recharging takes a lot longer than gas refueling, so I just don't see how this is ever going to be feasible, until we get battery energy density to like 2-4x++ what it is right now. And at that point, an "EV truck" wouldn't even be that special. EVs would be even more widespread.

What I think Tesla needs to do in this case is decouple their FSD and smart driving capabilities from the need of the vehicle to be an EV. I know they won't do that, but after recently test driving a Tesla with FSD, I am legitimately considering leasing one just because the FSD tech has gotten a lot more amazing. Companies would probably pay pretty good money for just the supervised FSD making things easier for their drivers, and that's a lot easier than trying to sell, "well yeah but now you need to completely restructure to be an EV truck."
Click to expand...
You're right. EV semis and other large commercial vehicles, with current technology, are really only good for inter-city and last mile deliveries. Which honestly is the niche they best fulfill anyways- no need for idling large diesel engines, most of the infrastructure is already present. IMO long distance electric trucks would only be viable with standardized rapid battery swap stations.
 
paradoxical said:
So some of the best selling cars in the world aren't a hit?
Click to expand...
The emphasis is on "modern." The Model Y was introduced in 2020, and the Model 3 in 2017. A lot has happened since then, including Elon becoming more self-indulgent with his projects.


paradoxical said:
I have a low 11 second daily driver with zero running costs over 40k miles. It's faster, cheaper, AND gets better range than my comparably powered sports cars (E85 conversion BMW M cars). Range, power, and lower costs have been thoroughly taken care of.
Click to expand...
That's great, but Tesla's straightforward EVs aren't the issue. It's the hot mess that is the Cybertruck, and the still-unreleased second-gen Roadster; it's building Cybercab robotaxis based on self-driving tech that's nowhere near ready; it's pivoting to Optimus robots when it's not even clear the finished product will do what Tesla wants it to do.

The Semi, if the early results are representative, is hopefully a return to that "just make a good product with viable tech" philosophy. I'd like to see Tesla drop the flights of fancy for a while and remember that EV sales are the core of its business.
 
Randall Stephens said:
Volvo has several hundred out, so Tesla is likely playing catch up.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/a63106904/volvo-electric-semi-trucks-progress/

“But Volvo Trucks has now revealed that its Class 8 VNR Electric models, which have a range of up to 275 miles, have covered over 10 million miles since the company began taking orders in December 2020. And the number of such Volvo Class 8 trucks on the roads in the US and Canada at the moment is approaching 600 units.”

That was 1.5 years ago.
Click to expand...
It is and it isn't.

Volvo, Freightliner and a handful of others have electric big rigs, but they cost more, have shorter range, and are still deployed in relatively small numbers. Semi theoretically has longer range (including with full payloads), at a lower price, with faster charging. It might also achieve higher on-the-road volume sooner.

The problem, as you might guess, is that Tesla made its initial claims in 2017 and didn't realistically deliver until nine years later. Volvo and crew started later, but they actually know how to translate ideas into shipping vehicles much sooner.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
It's the power density of hydrocarbons that will keep electric class eight trucks off the highway for some time yet, they're probably great for city stuff with less mileage and more stops. Lithium ion batteries are 250Wh/kg(ish) they can be a fair bit better, up to 400Wh/kg, but diesel fuel is 12,000+Wh/kg. It's a really huge difference, even the inherent inefficiency of internal combustion is still going to get you 10X the energy available than battery electric vehicles can get you. A heavier vehicle hauls less cargo and an electric truck takes a lot longer to charge than a diesel takes to refuel, all that makes the unit economics really hard to justify unless it's just a few units for PR.

There are batteries with extremely high energy densities that rival diesel, but they're usually quite small, very hot, and I haven't heard of any that are reusable.

I find the idea of electric trucks fascinating, once the weight is a little less extreme in terms of energy storage think of a truck that has batteries under the trailer or a trailer that isn't just pulled around, it pushes as well.
Click to expand...
Translation: EV trucks will never be economical for long hauls. Battery density + charge time = killer. Unless scientists discover massively better / lighter / cheaper battery technology than LiPo, it's not happening.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Translation: EV trucks will never be economical for long hauls. Battery density + charge time = killer. Unless scientists discover massively better / lighter / cheaper battery technology than LiPo, it's not happening.
Click to expand...
Which is why long haul really should be done by rail, and trucks should only be covering the last 100-150 miles.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Translation: EV trucks will never be economical for long hauls. Battery density + charge time = killer. Unless scientists discover massively better / lighter / cheaper battery technology than LiPo, it's not happening.
Click to expand...
Not sure if there is much doubt scientist will get good enough for truck before 2080.

The trend will slow down eventually, but the question is more about airplanes being possible than truck at the current pace.

Density evolution has been extremelly impressive, not just price in that field.

lithium-ion-batteries.jpg
otal-energy-NIO-BYD-BMW-Tesla-parity-line-1024x655.jpg



LiPo next evolution ("solid state") should be coming very soon, by 2030 for cars, 2-5 years for trucks, projected to double cell density to be in could work for airplane and really good truck level. The moment you reach 1000 miles / 11 hours shifts per charge with the trucking laws that force break, even if the recharge was long it would not be an issue.

Liquid cooled charging with solid state battey would be fast enough to support all day driving by automated truck has well, not much slower than diesel refueling. 3 megawatt charger is about 11-12 liter of diesel per minutes once you consider the electric engine vs diesel efficacy ratio, so charging would be only 10 time slower than a large volume diesel pump, making it a non issue for human driver break laws, but for autonomous trucking they could still want inductive charging or battery swap to occur, that said 25 minutes charge are not that long.
 
Last edited:
LukeTbk said:
LiPo next evolution ("solid state") should be coming very soon, by 2030 for cars, 2-5 years for trucks, projected to double cell density to be in could work for airplane and really good truck level. The moment you reach 1000 miles / 11 hours shifts per charge with the trucking laws that force break, even if the recharge was long it would not be an issue.

Liquid cooled charging with solid state battey would be fast enough to support all day driving by automated truck has well, not much slower than diesel refueling. 3 megawatt charger is about 11-12 liter of diesel per minutes once you consider the electric engine vs diesel efficacy ratio, so charging would be only 10 time slower than a large volume diesel pump, making it a non issue for human driver break laws, but for autonomous trucking they could still want inductive charging or battery swap to occur, that said 25 minutes charge are not that long.
Click to expand...
As Twisted pointed out, EVs need 10X battery density - not 2X. Fancy charts, but still a pipedream. I know solid state is coming - Toyota was saying 700-900mi range vehicles by 2027. Great for passenger vehicles. Not good enough for trucks.

3MW charger... liquid cooling? Sounds cool, but come on. America doesn't have the grid or pocketbook for that. Copper thieves would love to get their hands on that much copper.

Battery swaps? Now you're talking. Possible. Lots of obstacles to tackle including lack of batteries, trucks, infrastructure, standardization, safety and potentially cost. Long way off, unless one of the major carriers decides its worthwhile.
 
EREV with the engine strictly as a generator is going to be an interesting way to bridge the gap between battery tech and towing range. Ram has it now I believe, and the next Lightning should have it. Just in time for my Lightning lease to be up hopefully...

You could do a semi with a smaller engine just as a generator, big batteries, long range, and the torque of electric motors. Seems like a good idea until better batteries/charging is developed.
 
workshop35 said:
EREV with the engine strictly as a generator is going to be an interesting way to bridge the gap between battery tech and towing range. Ram has it now I believe, and the next Lightning should have it. Just in time for my Lightning lease to be up hopefully...

You could do a semi with a smaller engine just as a generator, big batteries, long range, and the torque of electric motors. Seems like a good idea until better batteries/charging is developed.
Click to expand...
So, a locomotive?
 
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Has anyone here been involved in Trucking?
I started around 17yrs old.
I personally don't see EV Taking over for this endeavor.
 
Tsumi said:
Which is why long haul really should be done by rail, and trucks should only be covering the last 100-150 miles.
Click to expand...

I mean currently it still just doesn't really matter, though. Even if they were "only" going 100-150 miles, they would be nearly prohibitively expensive to build, and require a ton of infrastructure built around them. I could definitely see some advanced projects springing up around the concept, here and there... but as a whole? I don't think anyone's going to spring on this. Just to haul tons of weight even 100-150 miles, you would probably need a huge battery... which means you reduce the amount of cargo you can carry almost inevitably. Then they would also be bigger. Get into a little accident? Hope the battery wasn't damaged.

This isn't like consumer automotives. The thing about consumer automotives, is if I got a Tesla/Bolt/whatever as a consumer driver that doesn't drive much, my probability of getting into a wreck or having something that compromises the functionality of the car... it's really low. Just statistically. But a truck? AFAIK fuel is not nearly as combustible as most Hollywood movies make it seem, and just offers much higher energy density (as well as simplicity of transport).

Like the exact distance just doesn't matter. The physics currently don't make sense for it. I say this as someone that is very much going to purchase an EV for my next car (except my current 12 year old one won't die). I'm supportive of the tech, but there are areas it does and doesn't make sense at. This is the latter. Tesla really needs to branch out into selling their FSD tech separately from the EV portion. If they did that, they would make money pretty easily in trucking. FSD is pretty good right now (granted, driving a huge truck is a bit different, but you could just do it on highways).
 
We need 100% Electric... even though our Infrastructure can't handle regular drag already... that's ok, let's just do it...

Fkn idiots.
Shit isn't free!
 
sleepeeg3 said:
As Twisted pointed out, EVs need 10X battery density - not 2X.
Click to expand...
I am really unsure how he calcute this, 2x remove trucks being a question and it is to start debate about airplanes.

with the current old battery tech for trucks (which move more slowly), Tesla already do "800km/500miles", with 822kw of usuable battery, deliver about 480-500 miles and being charged on liquid cooled 1.2 MW charger, that the current american tech used by Pepsi, the idea that by 2080 electric truck would have not long surpassed diesel would not be a bet I would take.

If you double battery life from that old current Tesla trucks with going to solid state, it change the security profil with stable not fire hazard tech, 1650 kwh is a lot (or cutting the battery weight in half or the maximum math to do with it), once you get close to that real world 1000 miles...

In the USA a driver cannot drive more than 11 hours in a day, in a 14 hours windows and must take a break of 30 minutes or more every 8 hours, in a shift they cannot log more than 715 miles, once you reach that capacity (charge enough in 30 minutes to do 8 hours... (520 miles), you pretty much already have maxed out what you need, doubling battery capacity allow that very well (they claim current tech do it during the summer with 80,000lbs, but I understand the skepticism, but doubling seem to leave no doubt with lot of room), why 10x ?
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I mean currently it still just doesn't really matter, though. Even if they were "only" going 100-150 miles, they would be nearly prohibitively expensive to build, and require a ton of infrastructure built around them. I could definitely see some advanced projects springing up around the concept, here and there... but as a whole? I don't think anyone's going to spring on this. Just to haul tons of weight even 100-150 miles, you would probably need a huge battery... which means you reduce the amount of cargo you can carry almost inevitably. Then they would also be bigger. Get into a little accident? Hope the battery wasn't damaged.

This isn't like consumer automotives. The thing about consumer automotives, is if I got a Tesla/Bolt/whatever as a consumer driver that doesn't drive much, my probability of getting into a wreck or having something that compromises the functionality of the car... it's really low. Just statistically. But a truck? AFAIK fuel is not nearly as combustible as most Hollywood movies make it seem, and just offers much higher energy density (as well as simplicity of transport).

Like the exact distance just doesn't matter. The physics currently don't make sense for it. I say this as someone that is very much going to purchase an EV for my next car (except my current 12 year old one won't die). I'm supportive of the tech, but there are areas it does and doesn't make sense at. This is the latter. Tesla really needs to branch out into selling their FSD tech separately from the EV portion. If they did that, they would make money pretty easily in trucking. FSD is pretty good right now (granted, driving a huge truck is a bit different, but you could just do it on highways).
Click to expand...
Freightliner eCascadia, 220 mile range, weighs 22,000 lbs. Probably a little optimistic as it has a 438 kwh battery pack. Peterbilt 579EV with 500 kwh has a stated range of just over 200 miles. A day cab truck is typically 15-20k lbs, so you can potentially lose 2-8k of cargo, or about 10% from a maximum rating of 80k lbs. Depending on the cargo, it may or may not matter. You can start building out for lighter cargo loads now and build for heavier loads later when solid state batteries finally get a major breakthrough. And honestly, you can build out destination chargers to recharge while unloading. There are existing and viable solutions; the real question is when diesel will become expensive enough to push companies in that direction.

Most EV tractors are not using a skateboard platform like car EVs, but in modules between the front and rear axles. The batteries are less likely to be affected from a front or rear impact. There are several modules so a side collision with one might not affect the others. This is different from car EVs where the battery frame is structural to the car to save weight.
 
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