The selling price of Tesla electric trucks is lower than experts expected, perhaps due to advances in battery technology

The selling price of Tesla electric trucks is lower than experts expected, perhaps due to advances in battery technology TechWeb reports News on November 27, according to foreign media reports, special...

TechWeb reported According to foreign media reports, Tesla announced the price of its first electric truck Semi last Thursday. Although it is higher than the current diesel truck, it is still far lower than experts expected. This may be due to advances in battery technology.

>Tesla released its first electric truck, the Semi, on November 17, and announced the price a week later. The prices announced by Tesla on Thursday showed that the entry-level Semi with a range of 300 miles (approximately 482 kilometers) is priced at US$150,000, the high-end version with a range of 500 miles (approximately 804 kilometers) is priced at US$180,000, and the 1,000 vehicles in the Founder Series are priced at US$200,000.

Although Tesla announced only the basic price and did not include configuration options that users need to choose, even if the final price will be slightly higher after customers determine the configuration, it will still be lower than experts had previously expected.

Before Tesla announced the price of the electric truck Semi, Axios reporter Steve Levine published a book on battery technology. In the book, he mentioned that experts expected the price of the Tesla Semi to be around US$300,000. "MIT Technology Review" estimates the selling price to be higher. They estimate it to be around US$400,000, which is more than twice Tesla's announced selling price.

Judging from subsequent reports from foreign media, the reason why the price of Tesla’s electric trucks is far lower than experts’ expectations may be mainly due to the advancement of battery technology.

When Tesla released the electric truck Semi, it stated that its power consumption per mile did not exceed 2 kilowatts/hour, which means that the battery capacity of its entry-level Semi is about 600 kilowatts/hour, and the battery capacity of the high-end version is about 1,000 kilowatts/hour.

A Tesla executive said last year that the cost of the battery pack would drop below $190 per kilowatt hour, so that the cost of a 1,000 kilowatt hour battery would be around $190,000. Taking into account other costs of the electric truck, the Semi would be priced at around $300,000.

But this is only an estimate given by Tesla executives last year. Battery technology is still improving. The Tesla electric truck will not be launched until 2019, which is still more than a year away. Tesla has enough time to develop more technologically advanced and lower-cost batteries. In addition, so far, none of the electric vehicles released by Tesla have been launched as scheduled, and the launch time is later than the time announced at the press conference. The electric truck Semi may not be launched as scheduled in 2019, which means that Tesla will have more time, which may be close to two years.

>Tesla's estimate that electric trucks consume no more than 2 kilowatts/hour per mile and cost $190 per kilowatt-hour may be just conservative estimates. Battery costs have been falling since last year.

In May of this year, an expert told Axios reporter Steve Levin that an electric truck with a range of 500 miles may only require a battery pack with a capacity of 500 kW/h, and the cost of the battery may be reduced to US$120. Counting other parts related to the battery, the total cost of the 500 kW/h battery pack is around US$70,000.

The battery pack costs US$70,000. Adding the cost of the entire vehicle, a high-end Tesla Semi with a range of 500 miles is basically feasible at US$180,000.

Although it is unclear whether Tesla's battery technology can reach this level, Tesla's battery technology will definitely improve before the electric truck is launched. Even if the cost cannot be reduced to 120 US dollars per kilowatt hour, it will definitely be well below 190 US dollars. (Chili Guest)