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Can Tesla’s Semi truck be a disruptive force in the trucking industry?

I’m certain that is what Elon Musk is hoping it will be and it seems to have that potential. CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla Semi will out torque any diesel truck and it will enable long distance trucking with full loads. If a report from Scott Perry, an executive at Ryder System is to be believed, the Tesla Semi will have 200-300 mile range which would limit its uses to local & regional freight routes.

The battery packs could be the same found in the Model 3 since Musk also confirmed that the two vehicles will share a lot of components, which is also a good indicator that Tesla is planning a production sooner rather than later.

The CEO said that Tesla Semi will use “a bunch” of Model 3 electric motors.

Sports Car Semi

He also confirmed that Tesla currently has a prototype in testing and he even got a quick test drive around the parking lot. He added that the truck “feels like a sports car”
We also know that the all-electric truck program at Tesla is led by Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s former Model S Program Director and VP of Vehicle Engineering. Before joining Tesla, Guillen was an executive at Daimler where he successfully led the development of the Cascadia semi truck program.
He arguably has the perfect experience to bring Tesla Semi to market since he previously led an all-electric vehicle program to market and a semi-truck program to market – both vehicles also ended up leading their respective segments.

Autonomous trucking

It will also feature autonomous driving features. It is unclear as to what level yet though. Is anyone else getting the image of the self driving semi in The Simpsons episode?

Do you think the Tesla Semi will have the ability to disrupt the diesel dominated trucking industry? Why/Why not?