Noob questions about Cybertruck

[BigJack86]

Fell in love with the Cybertruck since I first saw the reveal back in December and am really close to pulling the trigger but I have some nagging questions. If they have been answered before i apologize. Let me say that i would be ordering the base 40k model because I only commute about 200 miles a week and i see no need to humiliate sportscar owners. So here's the questions Thanks for your answers

1) How long do the batteries last on these vehicles? The sales guy at tesla said 300k miles plus but I don't really trust salespeople when they are talking about the products that they themselves are selling. I talked to GM about their hybrid batteries and they said they were only good for about 5 yrs from the time of manufacture.

2) If you need repairs where can you go to get them done? I have talked to friends in the auto repair industry that say that only Tesla dealerships will do repairs and that you could expect a 6 month wait to get your ride fixed. They did say, however that the Teslas were very well made.

3) When exactly will the CT be available to actually look at in person? Pictures are great, but actually being in the presence is alot better.

4) Finally being a first time EV buyer, how long does it take and what is the cost of charging a vehicle?

Thanks for your answers

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[MNSTR TRK]

Here's a noob guy (me) trying to answer your questions. But here is what I have gathered so far:

1) How long do the batteries last on these vehicles? The sales guy at tesla said 300k miles plus but I don't really trust salespeople when they are talking about the products that they themselves are selling. I talked to GM about their hybrid batteries and they said they were only good for about 5 yrs from the time of manufacture.

--> I don't think there is any definite answer at this time. There are speculations of 1M miles battery and ppl are waiting for Battery Day in Sept to find out more info. Then there's also speculations of how you charge (charge all the way to 100% or keeping it at 80% charge) to save battery life. Whether it's 300K or 1M miles, I am sure your CT will last longer than a ICE truck.

2) If you need repairs where can you go to get them done? I have talked to friends in the auto repair industry that say that only Tesla dealerships will do repairs and that you could expect a 6 month wait to get your ride fixed. They did say, however that the Teslas were very well made.

--> That was the case when Model Ss and 3s came out. I think there are autoshops now that can repair Teslas. The main question here is can non-Tesla shops do repair work on CTs, due to the 300 series stainless steel. We will find out later on.

3) When exactly will the CT be available to actually look at in person? Pictures are great, but actually being in the presence is alot better.

--> Maybe at least 6 months out, after production. Look at the Model Y, there still isn't one here in the Bay Area, CA showrooms.

4) Finally being a first time EV buyer, how long does it take and what is the cost of charging a vehicle?

-> No straight numerical answer, So many factors to consider: charging at home, charging at charging station, how many kWh you will need, cost per kWh, weather/temperature, etc. I'm sure some experts here can better answer for you.

 

[Newton]

I'm sure some1 else will chime in with more detailed answers but there's my bit of info for u.
1) we are expecting the "million mile battery" to be announced in September. (These new chemistry batteryb should last 1m miles at lesst). current batteries...Elon said the model 3 battery should last 1500 cycles, or between 300,000-500000 miles.

2) currently repairs are almost only from tesla.(they have a cool mobile service where a tech comes out to u also)There are a few 3rd party shops. But not many, these are considered premium vehicles so I would expect more premium prices

3) the CT was just at a vehicle museum in LA. Elon said he will be taking it across country soon. Probably stopping at main cities for people to see it. The real production is still about 2 years out, so we are still super early. And historically Tesla hasnt had many models of there cars to see before u buy.

4) how most people charge at home on a lvl 2 charger. This has to be installed like a 240v plug (similar to a electric dryer plug) you would get average of about 25-30 miles per hour charged. If u use a standard 120v plug it drops down to like 3 miles per hour charged. There is also the supercharging network that can fully charge the car in about 45 minutes. And still there's a bunch of 3rd party lvl2 chargers that can charge at about 50-70 miles per hour.

 

[VI Tesla]

1) has been covered above. But I agree I believe we're looking at 1 million miles or more for the CT battery pack.
2) Again as above repairs would be at Tesla shop or mobile repair, however this will change as autoshops tool and learn up on EVs. They'll have to or face extinction.
3)Unless you can catch a glimpse when they go cross country with it you'll have to wait like the rest of us, until someone local gets one. They still have to build the plant to manufacture the trucks, so a year or more for that then they'll roll them out starting with dual and tri motor versions first, not sure how reservation list impacts that (Already up around 700K orders), by region or first come first serve. If you're ordering the base model you may be waiting a few years before they start building those unfortunately.
4) I own a model 3 standard range plus 50KW battery pack. I had an existing 30AMP outlet in my shop that I used for a welder. If I set the current to 25 AMPS in the car it takes generally 4 hours to charge from 50% to the recommended ~%80 level. For a whole charge it's about 8-9 hours. Not really an issue in my books as we always charge during the night, so it's ready to go in the morning. When my wife was working we probably charged the car up from the %50 to %80 every other week. Note: you will take a hit in winter. Cost depends on where you are up here I calculated a full charge costs me roughly $8 to $10.

Welcome to the club.

 

[ajdelange]

Here's a noob guy (me) trying to answer your questions. But here is what I have gathered so far:

1)

2)

3)

Adequately covered by other posts

4) Finally being a first time EV buyer, how long does it take and what is the cost of charging a vehicle?

Obviously this depends on how much charge you need to add, how capable the charger is and how much a unit of electricity costs. The required charge per day is the number of miles you drive per day times the amount of charge used per mile. No one knows what the latter number is for the CT but I'll guess that it will be about 400 Watt-hours/mile. If you need 100 miles per day then that amounts to 40,000 Wh = 40 kWh. The maximum rate the vehicle will accept charge is very probably going to be 11.5 kW so if you have a charger at home that will supply that (48A) you will be able to top off in 40/11.5 = 3.5 hours. 32 A is a very popular size for chargers and one of those would clearly require
(48/32)*40/11.5 = 5.2 hours to load those 100 miles of range.

As a kWh costs about $0.13 in most of the US the cost to replace 100 mile of range is 40*0.13 = $5.20 equivalent to $0.052 per mile.

Thus typically a driver comes home, plugs in and goes about his business with the car topping up in a few hours and being ready for the next day at that point.

At a Super Charger you still need 40 kWh to replace 100 miles but the Super Charger will supply it at the rate of 150 or more kWh/h. Thus the 40 kWh can be loaded in in about a quarter of an hour. But juice also costs more at a Super Charger - I think about $0.23/kWh. This means a cost of $9.20 for 40 kW equivalent to $0.092 per mile.

 

[Crissa]

Battery life has been really good for Tesla.
https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-data/

The bigger the battery, the longer the life. Basically, lithium batteries only take damage at full and empty and if iverheated during charge/discharge. Tesla has liquid cooling/heating to solve the latter; and nearly everyone does cell balancing and charge limiting to prevent the former. It's just leaving it full or empty that does it.

No one knows how repairs will go. It will probably be expensive and hard to find someone to do it. But Tesla service centers have been expanding so there's that.

Charging depends on how you charge, what's your electricity price. If you charge at home, take your highest rate and assume it's additional to your current use. But there are ways around that... Getting time-of-day pricing and charging at night or mid-sunny-day if your network has alot of solar.

In California, I pay 31¢ kWh for all-renewable-sourced electricity, which is about 10¢ per Cybertruck mile. (My motorcycle gets 2¢ a mile)

-Crissa

 

[ajdelange]

Battery life has been really good for Tesla.
https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-data/

https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-data/

It's expected that is going to be appreciably improved over what we have to day and that this improvement may well be available by the time the CTs roll out.

The bigger the battery, the longer the life. Basically, lithium batteries only take damage at full and empty and if iverheated during charge/discharge. Tesla has liquid cooling/heating to solve the latter; and nearly everyone does cell balancing and charge limiting to prevent the former. It's just leaving it full or empty that does it.

It's not quite that simple. Whenever an electron is pulled out of or pushed into the battery a lithium ion flows (in the same direction) internal to the battery. These are supposed to arrive at and intercalate with the electrode for which they are headed but not all do. Some react irreversibly with the SEI or, worse yet, are reduced to lithium metal which plates out. In either case those lithium ions are no longer available to store energy. They have been, effectively, removed from the system. Temperature and depth of discharge have effects on the extent of this problem but clearly it is related to the total number of round trip C's (one C is the charge associated with "full") that flow into and out of the battery. A bigger battery (bigger C) will last longer for a given energy requirement because it goes through fewer C's but there is a trade. A bigger battery weighs and costs more. The effort at Tesla and Jeff Dahn's specialty, is finding additives that reduce the SEI reaction rate. Current technology battery life is about 500 round trip C's. It it anticipated that the new batteries will be capable of thousands.

No one knows how repairs will go.

Unfortunately, that's one thing we do have a pretty good idea about. Tesla's record in this department isn't great. Essentially Tesla is the only game in town and if a service center isn't in or near your town you can have problems. The ranger service is good. There have been real problems with getting parts from the factory. All this is getting better but they still have a way to go.

In California, I pay 31¢ kWh for all-renewable-sourced electricity, which is about 10¢ per Cybertruck mile.

Yes, some people get screwed big time by their utilities such as California where the citizenry demanded green of the utilities and got it or Hawaii where fuel has to be shipped from the mainland. At 400 Wh/mi and 31¢/kWh that's 12¢ per mile. You can tell a Telsa at what time you want it to start charging so if charges are reduced at some time of day you can charge then or you can set up solar cells and PowerWalls and charge from energy you collect from the sun (capital costs!).

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Fell in love with the Cybertruck since I first saw the reveal back in December and am really close to pulling the trigger but I have some nagging questions. If they have been answered before i apologize. Let me say that i would be ordering the base 40k model because I only commute about 200 miles a week and i see no need to humiliate sportscar owners. So here's the questions Thanks for your answers

1) How long do the batteries last on these vehicles? The sales guy at tesla said 300k miles plus but I don't really trust salespeople when they are talking about the products that they themselves are selling. I talked to GM about their hybrid batteries and they said they were only good for about 5 yrs from the time of manufacture.

2) If you need repairs where can you go to get them done? I have talked to friends in the auto repair industry that say that only Tesla dealerships will do repairs and that you could expect a 6 month wait to get your ride fixed. They did say, however that the Teslas were very well made.

3) When exactly will the CT be available to actually look at in person? Pictures are great, but actually being in the presence is alot better.

4) Finally being a first time EV buyer, how long does it take and what is the cost of charging a vehicle?

Thanks for your answers

1) no matter how long batteries last today they will be vastly different in 2 years. My guess is that they will easily last 500K miles. I owned a truck once that I drove 250K miles on in 16 years, so I guess that was an average of about 15K miles per year. If there really is a million mile battery and it really gets a million miles, it will likely outlive you (20K miles per year for 50 years).
2) I have no idea. We have owned our Model 3 for a year and nothing has gone wrong.
3) no one knows for certain, maybe a few months after they start delivering them. Given how far back in line you would be if you ordered today I wouldn’t worry about it.
4) like others have said, charging depends on where you are charging, how you are charging, and how much battery you are replenishing. We charge our Model 3 at hipome using a Tesla charger wired at 240V x 48 Amps which I believe charges at about 44 miles per hour on this car. We typically charge to 80% and it typically takes 3 hours (about 120 miles). We once did a day trip and charged at a super charger and I seem to recall that we charged for 20 minutes for 200 miles. The CT will be very different.

 

[Mini2nut]

In regards to question 3 I was lucky enough to see the CT in person recently at the Peterson Museum. The truck looks fantastic in the flesh! I still find it hard to believe that Tesla is actually going to produce this beast. I placed my reservation the day following the November reveal because I fell in love with the stainless steel construction, electric drivetrain and the futuristic styling.

The only part of the truck that looked a bit odd to me was the flat and completely blank tailgate. It may look better once they apply the Tri/Dual/Single model emblem on it. Futuristic and industrial looking the Cybertruck looks like nothing else currently on the road. Its going to take some time before the general public doesn’t rubber neck at every CT that drives by.

 

[BigJack86]

Thanks for the replies folks that reassures me a great deal.

If the battery is indeed a 1 million miler, with the stainless body they could probably bury me in it

and 10 cents a mile is one helluva lot cheaper than the 2.50/ gallon gas I'm paying for now...

I would probably be using a charging station because the landlord wouldnt allow me to put a charger in.

 

[ajdelange]

Just because your landlord won't let you install a charger does not necessarily mean you can't charge at home. If you are in a high rise apartment building then yes, there is likely to be a problem but if you are renting a house with any 240 V outlets around then you can plug your UMC into one of those and get a charge - a slow one, no doubt, but a charge nevertheless which should only cost you abot 5¢ a mile. You can even do up to about 9 miles per hour by charging from two ordinary 120 V outlets with a proper adapter box.

Battery longevity today is adequate but noticeable so that an owner is constantly checking his "battery report" to see if has degraded 3% and worry about it because his buddy's has only degraded 2%. With the "million mile" battery the numbers will be more like 0.3% and 0.2% so maybe people will quit obsessing on this.

 

[Mini2nut]

The good news is that all CT buyers will be getting the "latest and greatest" 2nd generation of battery technology.

I can't wait for Battery Day on September 22nd. The rumor is that Cybertruck updates will be on the agenda.

 

[TyPope]

Thanks for the replies folks that reassures me a great deal.

If the battery is indeed a 1 million miler, with the stainless body they could probably bury me in it

and 10 cents a mile is one helluva lot cheaper than the 2.50/ gallon gas I'm paying for now...

I would probably be using a charging station because the landlord wouldn't allow me to put a charger in.

At $2.50 a gallon, you'd only have to get 25 miles per gallon to make $0.10 a mile for energy costs. Hmm... Our Prius gets 38 miles per gallon which is $0.035 per mile here at $1.75 per gallon.

For my wife's Model Y,
We pay $0.0936 per kWh during the Summer and we've averaged 277 W/mile (yeah, it's new and I just can't NOT get into the accelerator at least once a drive!)

So, broken down by the $ per mile price in Nebraska:

2013 F-350 Diesel: $.120/mile*
2010 Toyota Prius: $.035/mile**
2019 Tesla Model Y: $.026/mile***

*When you factor in the maintenance costs, the truck cost just over $0.515 per mile (I've tracked that expense for 7 years)
**The Prius has accumulated zero maintenance costs in the 7 months we've had it but is about due an oil change (which I'll do myself, most likely for about $25).
***During the Winter, energy cost drops the cost per mile down to $0.024 per mile

 

[Balthezor]

Just curious, does Tesla do a Battery Day ever year or is the one in September the first?

 

[ajdelange]

These are really "investor days" intended to bring their investors up to speed on what they are working on. The previous one was on AI.