An article in yesterday’s cleantechnica reports a prediction that the Tesla Truck could soon have a million mile battery.
Let’s leave aside the fact that the original prediction was found by the author in Reddit. But the evidence for this proposition is that some researchers, with a contract with Tesla, think its possible.
Capitalism works by hype, PR, advertising and deception. The idea being that if you can persuade people that a product exists or will exist with amazing properties, then people will be less likely to buy competing inferior products, or will hold out for your innovation and be less likely to buy supposedly inferior products. As the article itself states ” This would be a key selling point for the indecisive buyer who is on the edge of purchasing one [a Tesla truck].”
The researchers may also be making the claim to keep Tesla interested in them, and supplying some funding – they have an interest in selling themselves as well.
So unless there is strong evidence that a million mile battery is currently in the testing stages, and that it is practicable for Tesla to build them at a price which is likely to attract custom (I have a million mile battery that can just power a car, only it weighs 100 tonnes, takes a year to charge and costs about 2 million dollars. Anyone interested?), then the sensible approach is to assume this is hype, and look at what the Tesla truck can do now. That may even be remarkable, just not as good as ridiculous, and its not so dependent on promises.
