SAN FRANCISCO: The numbers behind Tesla Inc’s long-distance Semi electric trucks are close to making sense for haulers looking at a shift away from diesel that may save them tens of thousands of dollars a year, according to an executive with DHL.
Jim Monkmeyer, president, Transportation at DHL Supply Chain, was among the first to order the trucks Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk’s company is expected to begin churning out in 2019.
He says the 10 trucks ordered are a test run and that he is still years away from switching the majority of his fleet of trucks to electric.
But he is taking heed of a major shift away from diesel and the money it could save DHL.
He says he could potentially pay off the difference between the purchase price of a Tesla Semi and a traditional diesel truck in less than two years, thanks to savings on maintenance and fuel.
“We are estimating that we could have pay back within a year-and-a-half based on energy usage as well as lower maintenance cost,” Monkmeyer said in an interview from his office in Columbus, Ohio.
“The maintenance savings can be enormous as well. Just because the engines are much simpler in terms of the number of parts and the complexities of the parts.”
The payback benefit is one of the keys to the success of the new generation of electric trucks and DHL, a unit of Germany’s Deutsche Post, has a history in the area, having already introduced 5,000 of its own electric “scooter” vans for local deliveries. — Reuters
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