Could Tesla trucks be TSLA's greater accomplishment?

[GON]

Today I had a lot of windshield time, primarily on I5 driving south in California. Like many BITOGERs, I am always looking at vehicles.

Nothing memorable caught me eye, until I saw a auto transporter with three Tesla trucks heading north on i5. Wow were the Tesla trucks eye catchers.

GM published a article ten years ago stating their biggest challenge was getting young people interested in vehicles. Per GM, the current younger generation has little interest/passion when it comes to vehicles.

Like, love, hate, or dispise the Tesla truck, without a doubt it is sparking the interest of young people. Something not a single automaker worldwide has been able to do on a macro basis in the USA in this century.

The Tesla truck may be a genius loss leader.

On a side note, the proprietor's of Wall Drug made generational wealth with a loss leader, signs that offered free ice water to travelers going through South Dakota.

 

[E365]

It certainly has gotten a lot of attention! On the other hand, the first full quarter it’s been out (Q1 ‘24) was Tesla’s worst in many years. Q2 ‘24 is shaping up to be pretty bad too. It doesn’t appear to be bringing many people into the brand, as of yet.

 

[JHZR2]

What’s to say it’s a loss leader?

We drove a Tesla model 3, and found the per mile cost to be on par with our minivan. Not good.

But look at diesel prices and surcharges at truck stops, and electric may be a good setup for some.

Instant full torque at 0 rpm. Recovery of momentum. Silent. I can see the benefits if the cost per mile end up favorable.

I think Tesla just needs to get past the full electric, and use the BMW i3 model with a little apu/extender.

Nobody thinks twice about a diesel electric locomotive, or a ship that uses electric propulsion. But hey, EV becomes political, and some folks hate musk, so lots of reasons for some to belittle this tech.

A BEV-biased diesel electric heavy truck seems quite prudent actually for many use cases.

 

[Jdeere562]

That song about Marie Laveau comes to mind, when I look at a Tesla truck.

Your too darned ugly for a rich man like me!

 

[cptbarkey]

People who remember the original Blade Runner or Delorean can appreciate it. Thats a small amount of aging people that includes me. Even though I can look at it and appreciate it, the guy behind it is one of the top 5 worst on the planet.
People who enjoy stainless steel vehicles can appreciate it. Nobody else makes one in that color to my memory.
I think the folks who are in construction or a trade are not likely to give it a second glance.
That leaves the nerd guy on my street who wears a fedora hat who probably made a few dogecoins. Yes i'm sterotyping but thats the target audience, yes I live barely 20 minutes from the facility.
That leaves 20 somethings who cant afford it anyway.
My older brother who has a deposit down and will get his sometime and is excited for the robotaxi feature. I personally would not like people puking in my Cybertruck.

I'm with @JHZR2 with a diesel hybrid and looking into it more. Theres been a few made by Youtubers.

 

[alarmguy]

Today I had a lot of windshield time, primarily on I5 driving south in California. Like many BITOGERs, I am always looking at vehicles.

Nothing memorable caught me eye, until I saw a auto transporter with three Tesla trucks heading north on i5. Wow were the Tesla trucks eye catchers.

GM published a article ten years ago stating their biggest challenge was getting young people interested in vehicles. Per GM, the current younger generation has little interest/passion when it comes to vehicles.

Like, love, hate, or dispise the Tesla truck, without a doubt it is sparking the interest of young people. Something not a single automaker worldwide has been able to do on a macro basis in the USA in this century.

The Tesla truck may be a genius loss leader.

$100,000 a pop it might be easy to create interest with anybody.
I suspect the reason young people aren’t interested in vehicles as you say is simply because they don’t have the disposable income to buy them in this price range

 

[supton]

A BEV-biased diesel electric heavy truck seems quite prudent actually for many use cases.

I could see that. A 50kW genset could greatly reduce battery weight while being quiet and clean (diesel or otherwise). Not sure about how aggressively regenerative braking could charge the battery pack--seems like that could be hard on the battery?--but overall less weight and work better for any place not having long hills.

 

[GON]

$100,000 a pop it might be easy to create interest with anybody.
I suspect the reason young people aren’t interested in vehicles as you say is simply because they don’t have the disposable income to buy them in this price range

From a 2012 NYT article published on CNBC's website:

As Young Lose Interest in Cars, GM Turns to MTV​

He and his team are trying to help General Motors solve one of the most vexing problems facing the car industry: many young consumers today just do not care that much about cars.

That is a major shift from the days when the car stood at the center of youth culture and wheels served as the ultimate gateway to freedom and independence. Young drivers proudly parked Impalas at a drive-in movie theater, lusted over cherry red Camaros as the ultimate sign of rebellion or saved up for a Volkswagen Beetle on which to splash bumper stickers and peace signs. Today Facebook, Twitter and text messaging allow teenagers and 20-somethings to connect without wheels. High gas prices and environmental concerns don’t help matters.

Forty-six percent of drivers aged 18 to 24 said they would choose Internet access over owning a car, according to the research firm Gartner.

https://www.cnbc.com/2012/03/23/as-young-lose-interest-in-cars-gm-turns-to-mtv.html

 

[Kira]

Adding electric drive technology to vehicles is absolutely a broad and interesting topic with many facets.
However, that Tesla Cybertruck is simply the most asinine example of excess I can think of.
It's a stupid, rolling billboard. It should've been a poster and nothing more.
I fully understand that "rules me out" from sober discussions about it.

Also, I feel the questionnaire needed to assess the feelings of the young towards cars would be quite long.
Remember, aside from aerodynamic styling sameness and the removal of larger (sporty) engine options for many buyers of midline vehicles, the teeny-boppers of today may have endured their male family members complaining about the disappearance of home maintenance.

The vehicle is a bigger mystery now. It can bite you harder now...and there's little most can do aside from pull out their credit card.

There is less consumer-level excitement about vehicles now-a-days because people know less about vehicles than ever before.
Did their parents even know when the steel mills came down? ...or when droughts interrupted grain barges on the Mississippi?

 

[alarmguy]

From a 2012 NYT article published on CNBC's website:

As Young Lose Interest in Cars, GM Turns to MTV​

He and his team are trying to help General Motors solve one of the most vexing problems facing the car industry: many young consumers today just do not care that much about cars.

That is a major shift from the days when the car stood at the center of youth culture and wheels served as the ultimate gateway to freedom and independence. Young drivers proudly parked Impalas at a drive-in movie theater, lusted over cherry red Camaros as the ultimate sign of rebellion or saved up for a Volkswagen Beetle on which to splash bumper stickers and peace signs. Today Facebook, Twitter and text messaging allow teenagers and 20-somethings to connect without wheels. High gas prices and environmental concerns don’t help matters.

Forty-six percent of drivers aged 18 to 24 said they would choose Internet access over owning a car, according to the research firm Gartner.

https://www.cnbc.com/2012/03/23/as-young-lose-interest-in-cars-gm-turns-to-mtv.html

Seems like that puts GM in a good position, maybe because of cost. Yet 2012 was a LONG time ago, it was the 2012 3rd year of strong earnings from GM coming out of the meltdown and selling off assets.

 

[ecotourist]

We drove a Tesla model 3, and found the per mile cost to be on par with our minivan. Not good.

I suppose you're talking about the cost when using Superchargers.

Charging costs much more when you use Superchargers (double at least, likely more). And that's probably fair. Supercharger installations must be costly and (to this point anyway) have been very well maintained. It's very rare to find even one charging station out of order. Most Tesla owners charge at home. That's how the per mile savings occur.

I just hope Tesla doesn't plan to let the maintenance of its Supercharger network slide. It's one of the prime reasons to buy a Tesla. If they decide to not maintain it very well, there would be way less reason to buy their products. Tesla owners bought their Teslas to drive them, and that includes when away from home base.

 

[Torrid]

What’s to say it’s a loss leader?

We drove a Tesla model 3, and found the per mile cost to be on par with our minivan. Not good.

But look at diesel prices and surcharges at truck stops, and electric may be a good setup for some.

Instant full torque at 0 rpm. Recovery of momentum. Silent. I can see the benefits if the cost per mile end up favorable.

I think Tesla just needs to get past the full electric, and use the BMW i3 model with a little apu/extender.

Nobody thinks twice about a diesel electric locomotive, or a ship that uses electric propulsion. But hey, EV becomes political, and some folks hate musk, so lots of reasons for some to belittle this tech.

A BEV-biased diesel electric heavy truck seems quite prudent actually for many use cases.

I've mentioned it before, but the diesel/electric locomotive has nothing to do with efficiency. It's solely for durability. There's likely not a drivetrain on the planet that can get 15,000 tons moving with only 12 driving axles. That's completely down to direct drive and full torque on immediate startup. As much as I'd love to tout electric power on the railroad, it's only for cost of maintenance even at the detriment of cost to operate per mile.

What they do need to do is use batteries to turn dynamic braking into a proper regenerative braking and reuse that power. They already ballast locomotives to add weight to assist traction. That weight might as well be batteries. The cost to maintain the batteries is likely why not many exist. If the locomotive batteries last 20 years and it's in service for 50 years, there might be a lot of disgruntled shareholders when the batteries reach the repair/replace stage.

I am curious about the Model 3 cost per mile to operate. You must have expensive power. It would take me getting 105mpg in my VW to break even with it and that's not even considering the other service costs of the VW.

 

[thastinger]

The performance of the cyberbeast trim level can't be denied, and you can still haul a yard of mulch or put a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the bed. I think they will sell every one of these things they can make.

 

[Torrid]

I suppose you're talking about the cost when using Superchargers.

Charging costs much more when you use Superchargers (double at least, likely more). And that's probably fair. Supercharger installations must be costly and (to this point anyway) have been very well maintained. It's very rare to find even one charging station out of order. Most Tesla owners charge at home. That's how the per mile savings occur.

I just hope Tesla doesn't plan to let the maintenance of its Supercharger network slide. It's one of the prime reasons to buy a Tesla. If they decide to not maintain it very well, there would be way less reason to buy their products. Tesla owners bought their Teslas to drive them, and that includes when away from home base.

I am a bit concerned what this layoff means for the supercharger network. We already own a Tesla that rarely ever sees public charging, but I would definitely end up using it a couple times a month if I was daily driving the car. It would give me pause if I was planning to buy a second one currently and likely would wait it out to see the aftermath before making any decisions.

If you remove the perk of the superchargers I really wanted a Polestar 2, but that's out because my closest dealer is in Minnesota 250 miles away. Not an option. My wife finally saw one in person last week when we were driving through town and she spun the block just to see it again not believing what I said it was. Now she understands why I like the look of the car. The Ford dealer here is taking EVs seriously, but Ford only makes larger EVs. I'm starting to feel like a perpetual fence sitter as far as buying an EV for my daily. There's not much I like on the market today regardless of what it's powered by to actually purchase at a price I want to buy at. So far that's only another GTI or a Golf R which wouldn't happen unless I absolutely had to replace the current one.

 

[ecotourist]

I am a bit concerned what this layoff means for the supercharger network. We already own a Tesla that rarely ever sees public charging, but I would definitely end up using it a couple times a month if I was daily driving the car. It would give me pause if I was planning to buy a second one currently and likely would wait it out to see the aftermath before making any decisions.

I'm concerned too. The big advantage of owning a Tesla has been and is the Supercharger Network. I don't use Superchargers a lot but I use them when we take our Tesla on a long trip. If that network becomes less reliable, I would consider other options.

If anyone had asked me what I could give up, I would have told them I could do without the games. Don't use them at all. My Tesla is a car not a toy.

Oh, and put a conventional steering wheel with turn signal stalks back in the revised Model 3 too please.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Beyond speculation, we don't know what Tesla's Supercharger plans are. Given their necessity, I doubt they will go down the tubes.

By the way, if you want the stalks back, the aftermarket is your friend.

 

[JHZR2]

I've mentioned it before, but the diesel/electric locomotive has nothing to do with efficiency. It's solely for durability. There's likely not a drivetrain on the planet that can get 15,000 tons moving with only 12 driving axles. That's completely down to direct drive and full torque on immediate startup. As much as I'd love to tout electric power on the railroad, it's only for cost of maintenance even at the detriment of cost to operate per mile.

What they do need to do is use batteries to turn dynamic braking into a proper regenerative braking and reuse that power. They already ballast locomotives to add weight to assist traction. That weight might as well be batteries. The cost to maintain the batteries is likely why not many exist. If the locomotive batteries last 20 years and it's in service for 50 years, there might be a lot of disgruntled shareholders when the batteries reach the repair/replace stage.

I am curious about the Model 3 cost per mile to operate. You must have expensive power. It would take me getting 105mpg in my VW to break even with it and that's not even considering the other service costs of the VW.

First, this thread doesn’t explicitly say cybertruk, so I was thinking more along the lines of Tesla tractor trailers.

Second, I didn’t say anything about diesel electric being for efficiency or otherwise. My point was thst electric drive has benefit in real industry, regardless of reason. Commercial maritime it is efficiency. Regardless of the reason for locomotives, point is that electric drivetrains aren’t just because some greenie wishes it so. They have legit uses and benefits.

WRT cost per mile, I had a rental Tesla and used a supercharger. Relative to house charging, I equate that to theft if the actual equivalent per road mile of gas tax isn’t paid in surcharges and fees on private citizens.

 

[alarmguy]

Saw cyber truck for the first time just a little while ago near our community.
It’s an attention getter no question about it and honestly, I think it looks kind of cool.

If it is ever successful enough among the elite or those willing to put down that kind of money, maybe just maybe the ridiculous downsizing of vehicles will stop in the mid to lower tier range.
Meaning, if the truck becomes popular, maybe that will stop shrinking SUVs into matchbox size cars by manufacturers

 

[JeffKeryk]

Saw cyber truck for the first time just a little while ago near our community.
It’s an attention getter no question about it and honestly, I think it looks kind of cool.
There is a price to be paid though

Me thinks you may be reading too many of my posts, AG.
I sat in one the other day when I went to see the M3P. And hardly a day goes by when I don't see one on the road...

 

[4WD]

Waiting on this edition