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2. Most of the material in batteries is recyclable. I'm not sure the economics are there yet, but it will be eventually, and probably soon. We need batteries for a lot more than just transportation

Again, back up your claim.

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3a. You have no clue how much freight they will haul. It is very possible they will haul more. Musk thinks they will.

You're totally missing the point. It's not just a matter of how much weight an electric truck can pull, it's a matter of how much weight the truck itself has. Roads have weight limits, the heavier a truck weighs means the less freight it can haul due to weight restrictions on the roads. Overweight trucks tear up roads. Batteries are heavy so logic says an electric truck will have to weigh more than a diesel powered truck. This means an electric truck will not be able to haul as much freight as a diesel powered truck.

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28732 posts

Posted on 9/8/17 at 9:54 am to Darth_Vader

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Electricity bills will be a fraction of diesel bills
Please explain.

Not much to explain. Operating an electric vehicle costs less than operating a gas/diesel one.

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2. Most of the material in batteries is recyclable. I'm not sure the economics are there yet, but it will be eventually, and probably soon. We need batteries for a lot more than just transportation
Again, back up your claim.

Funny I have to back up my claims, but you don't have to back up your speculation. Anyway, lithium itself is 100% recyclable, but it's currently a few times more expensive to recycle than to mine more. But, as we use more and more, the recycling cost will decline at scale. That's just the way things work... do I need to explain this?

Regardless of whether they're recycled, the initial cost of batteries continues to drop, which again is the nature of doing things at scale. Cars, trucks, phones, computers.. we use batteries everywhere. The cost of energy storage has been dropping forever, and will continue to drop for the foreseeable future.

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You're totally missing the point. It's not just a matter of how much weight an electric truck can pull, it's a matter of how much weight the truck itself has. Roads have weight limits, the heavier a truck weighs means the less freight it can haul due to weight restrictions on the roads.

I know.

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Batteries are heavy so logic says an electric truck will have to weigh more than a diesel powered truck.

That's some strange logic. We aren't just adding heavy batteries to current trucks, it's totally different drivetrain components. The electric motors weigh less than diesel engines, transmissions are smaller, etc. These things offset the weigh of the batteries to a large extent, and this plays out in the fact that Tesla's road cars weigh about the same as other vehicles, and they have more storage space to boot.