Teslas are legit, the folks boo-hooing have likely never driven in one. Cybertruck aesthetics are not for me, but neither are their cars. Musk pushes the envelope in everything he does. Time will tell, but his trucks will also catch on if they can tow.
With all that towing capacity, you could always bring a diesel generator around with you.. I wonder if you are allowed to charge while you drive?
Just saw that last night while watching “The Toys That Made Us” on Netflix. There is an episode on Star Trek. Interesting and fun series. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So I have a 3/4 ton truck put 7or8k behind it and range shrinks about 30 percent- seems maybe about the same for and "E" unit? diesel /electric - freight train power?
They are legit. But musk has no understanding of trucks... Yet. Electric vehicles have pros and cons. Speaking of which, the Ford Mach E electric SUV is going to give Elon a lot of sleepless nights. Look at the stats and costs of the mach E vs the model x or S and you'll see why. Then there's the even bigger deal with being able to take it to any Ford dealership. Many states don't even have Tesla dealerships. When Ford unveils and starts selling the electric F-150, which will happen well before Tesla will get their truck available to be delivered, they'll have a huge leg up on Tesla.
Guys that tow with Tesla model x SUVs report about a 30-50% towing range reduction, with ambient temperature, hills/ mountains, and trailer weight all figuring in as range reducers. The real issue is recharging with a trailer. Guys with Tesla's say they have to take their trailer off the vehicle to recharge at a Tesla supercharger. What a pita if that's true. Also, you wouldn't want to tow further than your range. Recharging isn't quick, you can easily fill up a fuel vehicle in 15 minutes or less and get going. Right now, driving cross country with a trailer behind an EV would be painful due to range reduction and 40 minute recharging necessities.
Since Tesla's doesn't do ICE, powertrains, I don't think that will ever happen. One if the other brands might though. There's always gas/ electric hybrids.
Towing with Tesla's didn't sound like it went that well. TFL truck bought a model x and did towing tests for mileage with a 4400 lb trailer and a 2000 lb overlanding camping trailer. The results are not good for any sort of distance. Range dropped worse than the 30% some model x owners claim. I'd have to watch the video again to get the adjusted range with each respective trailer, but even on their typical loop, they were using 3.3 times the expected watts with the 4400 lb trailer. Knowing this, they tried to take the lighter, lower profile camper on a trip, and they had to abort and swap the Tesla for an ICE suv to tow the camper to their destination. Yes, the model x only is rated for 5000lbs towing, and 325 miles not towing. But it appears that towing, even only 40% of capacity, that the range drops way more than expected. Granted, the Tesla truck will( per Elon, so take it with a grain or two of salt) have optionally two higher capacity batteries with higher range, up to 500 miles. Unless efficiency can be improved upon while towing from the model x, this electric truck will not be very useful to anyone towing even a modest amount more than 100 miles at a time. I'd like to see what the Rivian and other electric trucks can do in comparison for towing range. If this Tesla model x used 3.3 times more energy towing than without a trailer on the same route, that's not good. The chase ram rebel with a hemi couldn't keep up with the model x going up hill towing the 4400 lb trailer, for what that's worth. So it's powerful, which I would expect. But if this is a rabbit vs the tortoise comparison, Elon musk is going to have a lot of pie on his face. Sure people will buy them, even if it's uglier than sin and can't the every far. I mean how many full size trucks do you see out there that have never had more than an IKEA run in the bed?
