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Tesla Announces 'Battery Day' And Electric Semitruck Plan

Tesla is ramping up power production to put long-haul vehicles on the electric highway system by the end of the year. During the company's earnings callWednesday, CEO Elon Musk announced plans to produce "limited volumes" of its electric semitruck in 2020 for long-haul trips.

Musk said with trucks and all Tesla models, there’s a very steep ramp on battery production to lower the cost per kilowatt hour.

“This is very fundamental and very difficult, so we’re going to do kind of a battery day to explain more about this and what our plans are," he said.

Producing cyber semis also depends on how quickly the company can increase battery production.

“That’s part of the reason why we have not, for example, really accelerated production of the Tesla semi because it does use a lot of cells," Musk said. 

Musk said the battery buildup requires a “Battery Day” to discuss how the company will develop the needed power.

The goal is to develop battery life equal to a couple of thousand gigawatt hours a year in battery production. A 365-day year equals 8,760 hours, so over a period of one year, power of one gigawatt equates to 8.76 terawatt hours of energy.

Musk anticipated "Battery Day" to be sometime in April.

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Heather van Blokland was a host at KJZZ from 2016 to 2021.