DHL Supply Chain will be launch customer for 10 Tesla Electric Class 8 articulated semi trucks in the US, using the vehicles for shuttle deliveries and same-day customer deliveries in 10 cities from 2019. 

The trucks will join 5,000 StreetScooters, developed and manufactured in-house by DHL, plus some 10,500 e-bikes and e-trikes.

 

Deutsche Post DHL Group already operates a large electric fleet and plans to replace its entire mail and parcel delivery fleet with electric vehicles.

 

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports one of Europe’s leading energy consultancies has estimated Tesla’s electric haulage truck will require the same energy as up to 4,000 homes to recharge.

 

Tesla has promised haulage drivers they could add 400 miles of charge in as little as 30 minutes using a new megacharger.

 

But John Feddersen, chief executive of Aurora Energy Research, a consultancy set up by a group of Oxford university professors, said the power required for the megacharger to fill a battery in that amount of time would be 1,600 kilowatts.

 

That is the equivalent of providing power for 3,000-4,000 average houses, he said.

 

Other experts in battery technology claim charging a truck in half an hour would require technology exceeding anything available.

“The fastest chargers today can support up to around 450kW charging, so it’s not clear yet how Tesla will achieve their desired charging speeds,” said Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport at consultant Bloomberg New Energy Finance. 

 

“One option may be to segment the battery somehow and actually charge different segments simultaneously. This adds additional costs and we haven't seen anything like that done at anywhere near this power output."

 

National Grid, which oversees Britain’s electricity system, has suggested that in the most extreme scenario, electric vehicles could create as much as 18 gigawatts of additional demand for power at peak times in the UK by 2050. 

 

That is the equivalent capacity of nearly six nuclear power stations on the scale of the Hinkley Point project currently under construction in the south-west of England. 

 

Industry experts believe strains on the system could be reduced by using smart chargers that only re-boot vehicle batteries when the grid is able to cope, rather than at peak times, such as after work.

 

Tesla has declined to comment on the calculations, the FT said.