re: #116 Jay C

At the Tesla truck rollout, ISTR that the company’s initial idea was going to be to pitch the trucks to transporters who had regular, fixed routes - presumably within the 250-mile (?) charge radius the truck was supposed to have. Yes, for long-haul trucking, electric might not be ideal yet; but for a lot of urban/suburban deliveries it can certainly be competitive.

One of the objections to motor trucks in the first place was that they would require a vast new infrastructure of fueling and maintenance facilities. This infrastructure in fact started out with local and regional operations which
then expanded until the various centers coalesced into a national whole. It happened with amazing speed too. In 1919 young Dwight Eisenhower’s attempt to take the first motor convoy across the country was a multi-month ordeal. Within 20 years long haul trucking was a major industry.