When the Tesla semi-truck was first revealed, there wasn't really much media coverage on it and no one really paid much attention to it as a Tesla growth driver. They couldn't produce Model 3s fast enough, so how would they be able to produce a truck fast?
Forward to now, Tesla has been producing Model 3s at an extremely fast rate and it seems like they have the potential to produce the semi-truck. However, at this point everyone pretty much forgot about it. This is a good thing for the investors of Tesla because once the semi-truck gets into production and starts making money, it is goig to create a Tesla rally.
The Tesla semi truck is an incredible truck. out-competing any other truck in the market right now, and this really isn't a small market. The semi-trailer truck market in 2017 was 25.31 billion US dollars in the world, and this market is only expected to increase. By 2025 it should be worth 37 billion dollars. So even if Tesla owned like ten or twenty percent of this market share, it would be a significant amount of money.
At this point you should be wondering why Tesla semi truck will out-compete any other truck? The answer to this question is quite simple. The Tesla semi truck has the best specs in the market.
Let's just look at their 0 to 60 times. The 0 to 60 for a Tesla semi truck was recorded to be just 5 seconds, and this is with no load on it. At the moment, the semi truck with the biggest market share, the Freightliner Truck, has a 0 to 60 of 15 seconds with no load. Remember that we are talking about the best selling truck in the market.
The greatness of the Tesla semi truck does not end there. For just 180 thousand dollars you can get a 500 mile range semi truck. This will lead to fuel savings of more than $200,000 in a a two-year payback period. When you're saving more money than the car costs, you really know this is going to be a hit.
But Tesla's competitors aren't gas. Gas has been ruled out a very long time ago. The Cascadia Freightliner, the current best-selling truck in the market, is actually electric. The truck only has a range of 250 miles, and the price of this truck is around the same as Tesla's. You can pick one up for around $160,000 but when Tesla's semi truck comes out, you obviously would not be buying the other one. Tesla Semi has better acceleration, better range, better charging, and better efficiency. It is clear that the Tesla semi-truck would be the better truck in the market.
You are probably wondering when is this truck coming. It seems like it will be a big hit and has amazing specs, but if only it could start getting produced. The Tesla semi truck is expected to start production by the end of this year. In 2018 the number of Class-8 semi trucks sold was 251 thousand trucks. The Cascadia Freightliner currently has 40% of this market share, or so they say. This is equivalent to 100,000 trucks. Assuming that Tesla was able to produce and sell this many trucks, they would have revenue of 18 billion dollars, and that's just from the Semi trucks. Even if they are able to sell half of this number, that would still be a significant boost to the current revenue, and this is why the semi truck will make Tesla billions.
It is around four or five times more expensive than the other cars, which means higher profits and high revenue for Tesla. They can sell less, but produce more revenue with a Tesla semi truck. Think about it, would you rather sell a product worth 10 dollars a thousand times, or a product - worth a thousand dollars, 10 times?
This is Tesla's approach to the Tesla Roadster, and the Tesla semi truck. They got the name out by selling all these mass-market cars, but now it's time to target the upper-class. We're talking about major retail companies like FedEx, Amazon, and even smaller market companies that are worth billions still. These are companies that would order loads and loads of trucks at the same time, in one order.
This is a massive opportunity for Tesla to make billions of dollars, and it is not just about the specs, there is more to it. Many of truck drivers out there do know that truck driving can be extremely boring. However, with Tesla's autopilot and possibly self-driving in the future you don't have to constantly stay focused on driving. Just sit there and watch. Let the car drive for you. You can see how this will change the truck driving experience forever. Tesla has tons of data about autopilot and they can take advantage of it. This is something other car manufacturers are nowhere near approaching.
Tesla's autopilot is far safer than actually driving. Tesla's autonomous miles have logged almost two billion miles. In comparison, Google's Waymo drove just 1.3 million miles, and GM's Cruise drove around 447 thousand miles. This is a huge difference. Tesla's semi-truck will not only make billions, it will also change the game of truck driving forever.
