David Fickling, Columnist

Elon Musk’s Impossible Electric Truck Is Getting the Last Laugh

Batteries as heavy as an elephant are not ideal for long-haul trucking, but non-diesel eighteen-wheelers may have found a niche.

December 4, 2022 at 9:00 PM UTC

By David Fickling

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Non-diesel eighteen-wheelers may have found a niche.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

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When Elon Musk announced plans to upend the long-haul trucking industry five years ago, it was hard to suppress the urge to laugh.

Well before he was developing flamethrowers and humanoid robots, and haggling with Stephen King over Twitter subscription fees, the announcement of the Semi long-distance truck saw the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer picking a fight not just with the established auto industry, but with basic economics and physics.