Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/730281
new electrically driven rear axle with electric motors directly adjacent to the wheel hubs – derived from the electric rear axle that was developed for the Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid bus. The power is supplied by a battery pack consisting of three lithium-ion battery modules resulting in a range of up to 125 miles – enough for a typical daily delivery tour. The batteries are housed in a crash-proof location inside the frame. The cost of fully electric drives sys- tems, coupled with their low mileage range, has made the venture pro- hibitive until recently. Daimler Trucks expects the costs of batteries to lower by a factor of 2.5 between 1997 and 2025 – from $550/kWh down to $220/kWh. At the same time, perfor- mance is forecast to improve by the same factor over the same period – from 80 Wh/kg up to 200 Wh/kg. Tesla says its own electric semi is under development Tesla, makers of electric and semi-au- tomated sedans, announced just days earlier in an online blog post it has already begun work on an electric- powered heavy-duty truck. Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a July 20 blog post titled "Master Plan, Part Deux" said the heavy-duty truck de- velopment could be unveiled as early as next year, though the company is still in the early stages of develop- ment, he said. "We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduc- tion in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate." Musk also in the blog post ad- dressed criticism of the com- pany's autonomous Autopilot system, which came under fire recently by the public and regulators for its role in causing a fatal crash in which a Tesla Model S sedan hit a Class 8 tractor-trailer. "This is not beta software in any normal sense of the word. Every release goes through extensive inter- nal validation before it reaches any customers," Musk writes. "It is called beta in order to decrease complacency and indicate that it will continue to improve (Autopilot is always off by default). Once we get to the point where Autopilot is approximately 10 times safer than the US vehicle aver- age, the beta label will be removed." Tesla is not the first company this year to say it has an electric semi in the works. Start-up tech company Nikola (a company also named after famed inventor Nikola Tesla) also an- nounced it plans to release an electric Class 8 truck — targeted at owner- operators — in the coming years. 6 www.bigrigowner.com O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 Cover Story