Toyota vs Tesla: Battle of the Semi
I recently read an article, found here, and a recent trend among car manufacturers are the creation of trucks that produce zero-emissions. For example, Tesla recently revealed their plans for an electric truck. Today, Toyota released a hydrogen fuel cell system to propel zero-emission trucks.
According to the article
Musk's tweet led at least one analyst to downgrade shares of heavy-truck maker PACCAR (NASDAQ:PCAR) and diesel-engine giant Cummins (NYSE:CMI) on concerns that Tesla could emerge as a dominant player in the market for zero-emission heavy trucks. (That seems awfully premature, given that Tesla hasn't even shown its truck, much less explained how, when, or in what factory the truck will be built.)
I believe that in the future, zero-emission trucks will eventually push out diesel and gasoline powered trucks. Invariably, there is going to be competition between Tesla and Toyota for zero-emission truck dominance. As the article points out,
Tesla's electric truck will almost certainly be powered by a battery pack, similar to those used in its cars. But unless Tesla has come up with a dramatic breakthrough, its battery-powered heavy truck is likely to have a couple of drawbacks:
The number of battery cells required to move an 80,000-pound vehicle several hundred miles is very large, meaning that the battery pack in Tesla's truck is nearly certain to be bulky, heavy, and expensive;
That big battery pack will take a long time to recharge, taking the truck out of service for several hours a day.
In theory at least, fuel cells get around those disadvantages. A fuel cell is a device that chemically converts the energy in hydrogen gas to electricity. The only "exhaust" is water vapor, and that can be collected and reused (it's just clean water). A fuel cell system scaled for a tractor-trailer isn't huge or heavy -- and it can be "recharged" in minutes, as long as there's a hydrogen refueling station nearby.
I believe that Toyota will beat Tesla to come out on top in this segment? What do you think?
