What are the trucks that Tesla could produce in Italy?
The Italian government, in its game with Stellantis, is reportedly courting Tesla to plant the production of electric trucks in the country. Given all the problems and delays shown by Semi so far, however, it doesn't seem like the ideal horse to bet on
If industry experts are notoriously rather lukewarm about the fact that tomorrow's private mobility could quickly transition to electric propulsion, they become even more pessimistic when it comes to vans and trucks on tap. Because batteries require space, a lot of them, and current technology doesn't seem to have managed to miniaturize them enough yet. And the more space batteries take up, the less there will be for goods. For carriers this means less profit. And the weight of the vehicle will be greater, especially when fully loaded. Vehicle that must respect tight schedules, not being able to afford long stops at the electric charging stations or, worse, queuing, waiting to find a free one.
ELECTRIC TRUCKS ARE NOT A BARGAIN FOR STARTUPS
Many electric van startups have already crashed, not least Europe's Volta Trucks which had 16-tonne pickup trucks in store. Nikola's vicissitudes that led to the separation from Iveco are well known to everyone. Then there's Tesla, the most capitalized car brand in the world: it has enough money to experiment, but even its Semi aren't doing too well.
TESLA READY TO BUILD EV TRUCKS IN ITALY?
Let's talk about it again because, according to press rumors, the Meloni government is negotiating with Elon Musk , owner of the brand (who recently had a liaison via heavy. Therefore, it is not a twin plant to the one in Berlin, but rather a structure designed to produce exclusively commercial vehicles.
As has often been written in Start Magazine , the government, which perceives the presence of only one brand (Stellantis) in the country as limiting, intends to diversify, but it is not known whether the dialogues initiated with Tesla, as well as with BYD and Chery are just the equivalent of bluffing in poker games, in the hope of pushing Carlos Tavares , who holds the fate of the former Fiat factories in Italy, to more lenient advice.
But, given Stellantis' recent decisions on Leapmotor (Mirafiori was among the factories vying for the production of the Chinese clone of the electric 500, but it seems that it will be assembled in Poland), the strategy certainly cannot be considered successful, at least for now and a harbinger of positive results for our country.
ALL THE GRAINS OF THE SEEDS
Tavares is unlikely to budge now, reading the rumor in the newspapers that Elon Musk's heavy EV vehicles could be built in the Bel Paese. Because, precisely, Tavares is the first to know its limits. Limits against which Musk himself has banged his face.
The owner of the electric car had announced that he wanted to start building trucks on tap with Tesla Semi six years ago, stating that production would start in 2019. The pandemic, the absence of chips, the soaring costs of raw materials caused postponement upon postponement.
TESLA TRUCKS… USED BY TESLA
In January 2023, Tesla announced the construction of a factory dedicated to the Semi in the Gigafactory Nevada plant, investing 3.6 billion dollars. During an energy conference in Austin, Texas, home of Tesla since the move from California, Elon Musk said on June 13, 2023 that “higher volume” series production of the Class 8 truck would be further postponed, at least until the end of 2024.
Exact numbers do not exist, but it seems that in the autumn of 2023 just about seventy electric trucks had been produced, mostly used by Tesla itself to transport battery packs from the Gigafactory in Nevada to the Fremont plant, instead of the old ones. diesel truck, a journey of 420 km.
In short, we've been talking about it for years, but the day when Tesla trucks will really take hold (or rather, tires) on the roads still seems a long way off. Naturally, to say nothing of the rumors that would demolish its reliability and autonomy : having not been verified, they certainly do not represent a reliable source.
TRUCKS BETWEEN GERMANY AND BERLIN?
Immediately after the arson attack on the German factory, Elon Musk, visiting the site, hinted that not only will he not be intimidated by eco-vandals, but that he intends to relaunch, expanding the production of his first and currently only European gigafactory.
The South African tycoon even said that it would make sense to manufacture Semi in Berlin too. Also probably to exploit the means internally, so as to internalize a service that has so far been contracted out, exposing Tesla to the strikes that paralyzed it in Northern Europe at the end of 2023. To date, however, the only Tesla built in central Germany is the Model Y. Will Germany and Italy compete for the production of the Semi?
WHERE COULD THE ITALIAN GIGAFACTORY BE BUILT?
So far Musk has created a single gigafactory in the heart of Europe that would allow it to reach anywhere, but above all to be close to the Scandinavian peninsula, the main market of the Old Continent as far as electric mobility is concerned.
If the Italian gigafactory will be in support or "side" to the German one (the Semi could in fact be used by Tesla for the transport of materials), it is plausible to hypothesize that Musk intends to reduce the physical distance between the two factories as much as possible, therefore the choice could almost certainly fall in Northern Italy and, in particular, between Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli Venezia – Giulia.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/quali-sono-i-camion-che-tesla-potrebbe-produrre-in-italia/ on Tue, 26 Mar 2024 08:54:40 +0000.