Tesla Cybertruck

Cybertruck is built with an exterior shell made for ultimate durability and passenger protection. Starting with a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton, every component is designed for superior strength and endurance, from Ultra-Hard 30X Cold-Rolled stainless-steel structural skin to Tesla armor glass.

ULTRA-HARD 30X COLD-RTESLA ARMOR GLASS

Ultra-strong glass and polymer-layered composite can absorb and redirect impact force for improved performance and damage tolerance.

OLLED STAINLESS STEEL

If there was something better, we’d use it. Help eliminate dents, damage and long-term corrosion with a smooth monochrome exoskeleton that puts the shell on the outside of the car and provides you and your passengers maximum protection.

TESLA ARMOR GLASS

Ultra-strong glass and polymer-layered composite can absorb and redirect impact force for improved performance and damage tolerance.

VERSATILE UTILITY

With up to 3,500 pounds of payload capacity and adjustable air suspension, Cybertruck is the most powerful tool we have ever built, engineered with 100 cubic feet of exterior, lockable storage — including a magic tonneau cover that is strong enough to stand on.

VAULT-LIKE STORAGE
Space for your toolbox, tire and Cyberquad, with room to spare. Utilize 100 cubic feet of exterior, lockable storage — including the under-bed, frunk and sail pillars.

PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY

Now entering a new class of strength, speed and versatility—only possible with an all-electric design. The powerful drivetrain and low center of gravity provides extraordinary traction control and torque—enabling acceleration from 0-60 mph in as little as 2.9 seconds and up to 500 miles of range.

 

 

 

Tesla Pickup Truck

CEO Elon Musk has been talking about Tesla making an all-electric pickup truck for years now, but he said that third generation vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y, were the priority for now. When revealing his ‘Master Plan Part Deux‘, Musk confirmed that Tesla has been working on a pickup truck but that the company is still in the ‘early stages of development’.

Nonetheless, he later added that we should expect an unveiling of the concept in “6 to 9 months”, which should end up being in early to mid-2017. It is expected to be in production within the next 3 to 4 years (2019-2020).

Not much is known about the vehicle at this point and we are stuck with only unofficial renderings from artists, like the one above, to help us envision what a Tesla pickup truck could look like.

Additionally, Musk did say that Tesla will likely build an all-electric cargo van on the chassis that it is developing for its pickup truck.

Electric pickup trucks and SUVs are a super hot segment these days with the Tesla truck and the Rivian R1T pickup leading the charge. Newcomer Cadillac now joins the mix with a long-range electric Escalade reportedly in the works. Even though neither of these trucks nor the Caddy SUV is for sale at the moment, there's still quite a bit of news, rumors and more to report.

It was a rather slow week in the world of electric trucks & SUVs, but still there was a Tesla truck reliability report, some highly unexpected Cadillac electric SUV news and even a brand new render of the Tesla truck.

Let's check out some of this weeks news highlights related to electric trucks & SUVs.

For Tesla, the focus has long been on range and performance. The reliability of some of its models (the Model X in particular) has been deemed subpar by the likes of Consumer Reports (and others). Even the Model 3 and Model S have had some reliability issues.

But do truck owners truly value reliability? So much so that Tesla should put that as its primary focus with the Tesla truck? It seems they do.

Given time, we're confident Tesla can deliver reliable as well as it can performance. One step at a time. The million-mile electric motor is already in place.

When Elon Musk speaks about the new Tesla pickup truck, he says it is his favorite product to date. And he also hints it will make the RAM look puny. Or, even more, that it will look like a Blade Runner contraption. This is the lead the artist Justin Duel James has followed to create this rendering.

https://electrek.co/guides/tesla-pickup-truck/

Tesla Semi, all-electric trucks get scathing criticism from auto tech expert

‘Tesla Semi’ is an heavy-duty all-electric truck program at Tesla 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 truck program (picture on the right).

The Tesla Semi might be receiving a lot of interest from companies and the electric vehicle community as a whole, but an automotive technology expert from Germany is not that impressed. In a statement, Chair of Automotive Engineering at the Technical University of Munich Markus Lienkamp criticized all-electric trucks like the Tesla Semi, stating that such vehicles are pretty much pointless in the economic and ecological sense.

“The battery for a Tesla Semi must have a capacity of about 1000 kWh, per 100 kilometers about 130 kilowatt-hours. This is technically not easily feasible and it’s also pointless both economically and ecologically,” he said.

Lienkamp’s scathing criticism comes on the heels of a study from Transport and Environment, a consortium of European environmental organizations that conducted a study comparing the energy consumption and environmental costs of conventional diesel trucks and their all-electric counterparts. Two diesel trucks were used for the study: one with an average consumption of 33 liters per 100 kilometers (around 7 mpg) and a more aerodynamic truck with a consumption of 22 liters per 100 km (10.69 mpg).

The results of Transport and Environment’s study found that diesel trucks consume between 2.2-3.3 kilowatt-hours per kilometer, far above the consumption of an average electric truck, which requires 1.44 kWh per km. Electric vehicles that are designed from the ground up for maximum efficiency such as the Tesla Semi require just 1.15 kWh per km. The study’s authors concluded that overall, using all-electric trucks reduces energy consumption by a factor of 1.5-2.9.

All-electric trucks surpass diesel trucks in terms of efficiency as well. The study revealed that a diesel truck engine has an efficiency of 20-45% on long-haul routes and a measly 10% in city traffic. In comparison, electric trucks have a 90% efficiency for long routes and 75% in urban traffic. Lienkamp is not convinced, arguing that the source of the electricity used by vehicles like the Tesla Semi affects efficiency.

“The efficiency of the electricity mix used for the truck battery is important. If the energy comes from a gas-fired power plant, for example, the overall efficiency quickly drops back to 40%. If, on the other hand, 80% to 90% of the electricity comes from renewable sources, as planned in the EU for 2040, long-distance trucks would be attractive from an ecological point of view,” he said.

The authors of the study maintained that electric trucks are cheaper to repair and maintain simply because they have fewer moving parts. Even brakes will rarely need replacing, thanks to systems like regenerative braking. While these are compelling advantages, Lienkamp stated that “for distances of 500 kilometers and beyond, battery-powered trucks simply won’t make any economic sense until 2030,” adding “with electric vehicles, the cost of trying to reduce CO2 levels is simply too high.”

It should be noted that the Tesla Semi, at least in its upcoming iteration, is not designed to enter the long-haul market that is dominated by trucks that can go over 1,000 miles in one full tank. Rather, the Tesla Semi is designed to compete in short-range routes that range from 300-500 miles. From this perspective, it becomes difficult to argue against the Tesla Semi.

The Tesla Semi is a Class 8 truck, and with its four Model 3-derived electric motors, the all-electric long-hauler is capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in just 5 seconds without a trailer. With a full load, the Semi can reach highway speeds in 20 seconds, far quicker than conventional diesel trucks. The Tesla Semi is currently undergoing real-world tests, in preparation for its production, which is expected to start either this year or sometime in 2020.

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-criticism-vehicle-tech-expert/

Tesla Model X the First SUV Ever to Achieve 5-Star Crash Rating in Every Category

We engineered Model X to be the safest SUV ever, and today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that after conducting independent testing, it has awarded Model X a 5-star safety rating in every category and sub-category, making it the first SUV ever to earn the 5-star rating across the board. More than just resulting in a 5-star rating, the data from NHTSA’s testing shows that Model X has the lowest probability of injury of any SUV it has ever tested. In fact, of all the cars NHTSA has ever tested, Model X’s overall probability of injury was second only to Model S.

Model X performs so much better in a crash than gas-powered SUVs because of its all-electric architecture and powertrain design. The rigid, fortified battery pack that powers Model X is mounted beneath the floor of the vehicle creating a center of gravity so low that Model X has the lowest rollover probability of any SUV on the road. No other SUV has ever come close to meeting and exceeding this rollover requirement.

NHTSA’s tests assess both the structure of the vehicle, which must minimize intrusion into the cabin and absorb as much energy as possible, and also the seatbelt and airbag restraint system, which must maximize injury mitigation in the event of a crash. Among the nine subcategories rated by NHTSA, including frontal impact, side impact, and pole impact tests conducted on both the driver and passenger side as well as the rollover test, Model X achieved 5-stars in every category and sub-category. That means that in the event of a serious crash, Model X occupants have an overall 93% probability of walking away without a serious injury – a testament to our commitment to building the safest cars on today’s roads.

Source  : https://www.tesla.com/blog/tesla-model-x-5-star-safety-rating