A Tesla big rig that caught fire kept both directions of California’s Interstate 80 closed in the Sierra Nevada for hours on Monday.
Cal Fire crews responded to the scene of an electric semi-truck fire around 3 a.m. near Emigrant Gap. California Highway Patrol later confirmed they were dealing with a hazardous materials situation due to potentially toxic fumes from the big rig’s batteries.
First responders say that the batteries of the electric big rig were still burning hours later.
Range is one thing, as is acceleration, but the issue all electric semis have is haul weight. They are all bad at actually hauling goods. They have to give up 5-10k in goods carried for each truck, at least. With a standard semi hauling 80k, that’s a huge amount of lost capacity. The actual carrying capacity of the Tesla Semi is one of the data points that they won’t release, which tells you its not something they want people to know.
Semis are the good use case for clean hydrogen. Batteries won’t fly without radically different chemistries.
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Hydrogen is a way bigger scam even than anything Musk pushes.
Frankly, the real solution is for the vast majority of long-haul freight to switch back to rail, and for the remainder to just keep using diesel, but make it out of waste cooking oil instead of squished dinosaurs.
I mean, if we’re talking about real solutions - a highly effective and efficient option would be airships. Could replace mid and long distance freight trucking shipments. Could replace international freight ships too.