Can someone explain to me how this can be taken seriously? It seems to me like trucks are already weight-limited in a way that cars aren't, so the immense weight of these batteries would hurt a lot for moving stuff.
Nikola truck design uses a natural gas turbine to charge the batteries. Lower weight, longer distance, 6 wheel drive, better performance... I expect Tesla to beat this.
It's not a long haul from the Nevada lithium mines Tesla has signed contracts with (or rather, evaporation ponds) to the Gigafactory. Tesla even got the Nevada DOT to change a truck route for them to shorten the route.
A Tesla semi need not go far at first, only far enough.
I didn't look into the transmission, but it looks like those engines tend to be about 2600 lb. For comparison, the model S 85kwhr battery is just below half that.
So the idea may have more merit for short- and medium- range trucking than I suspected.
There are a lot of semis (with no sleeper) used for intra urban delivery such as from a major grocery warehouse to your local grocery store. Last 40 miles.
