Range Energy shows how its eTrailer saves almost as much as a Tesla Semi

Range Energy, a company working to electrify trucking through the use of a trailer with its own battery and motors, has published an analysis showing how much fleets can save through electrification – and just at the right time, with diesel at record highs. You may have heard a little something about diesel prices lately, which have just about doubled in less than a year due to Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran. Diesel is now at record highs, and it’s devastating fleets and truck drivers and anyone who uses any products that are delivered on trucks (so, everyone). It’s an urgent problem that needs an urgent solution, and solutions are not forthcoming from the responsible entities. So, fleets have to seek another solution, and Range Energy would like to be the one that provides it. Range is a startup based in California, founded and staffed by former Tesla employees and others from around the EV industry. It’s building an electrified trailer which we demoed at ACT Expo in 2024 (really, watch it, it’s a very cool demo) which promises to cut fleet fuel use significantly. It does this by having its own battery and motors inside the trailer, meaning the tractor doesn’t have to work nearly as hard as the trailer can effectively pull its own weight. Even though the tractor still runs on diesel, it uses a whole lot less of it. This differs from the other popular option for fleets: full electrification. There are a number of electric semi tractors available, and fleets have been moving to install them, getting their depots ready for charging. But Range lets you bring your own tractor, and electrifies the trailer instead. Range previously published some early findings, showing a 36% reduction in fuel use in a testing scenario. It also did a pilot program with an egg farm in California, which improved the fuel efficiency of the farm’s diesel fleet by 50-70%. Now Range has published its own white paper showing comparative savings that fleets can achieve with either its own solution, the eTrailer, or Tesla’s solution, the fully electric Tesla Semi. The paper does not cover the various other electric semi tractors available on the market today, just a face-off between Range and Tesla. The analysis goes through several scenarios, mostly focusing on refrigerated trailer units (“reefers”), which is the first product Range is focusing on. Trailer electrification is a great idea for reefers, because they usually fill up on volume rather than weight (called “cubing out”), meaning battery weight doesn’t eat into maximum trailer payload. Batteries also offer power to run refrigeration, meaning you don’t need to have a diesel generator on the trailer. The upshot of the whole thing is that: fleets can save money with the Range eTrailer, and can theoretically save more money with the Tesla Semi, but the numbers are relatively close in the most common scenario, and the Tesla scenarios have a much wider spread depending on what implementation you consider. For example, if you only use public chargers rather than your own depot, the Tesla Semi will be more costly because energy will be more expensive to your fleet than if you bought it at commercial utility rates. So, even though installing chargers in your depot sounds expensive, it will pencil out better in the end. The best money savings came from having two Semis share the same charger, but that requires tight timings and overnight driving. Another important feature Range points out is build time for a project. The nice thing about the eTrailer is it can slot into fleets immediately with little operational change required, whereas the larger charging needs of an electric tractor) tend to require bigger projects to get a depot ready with chargers (but despite the higher upfront costs, you get better long-term savings, since you avoid diesel entirely with an electric tractor). In the end, Range found that its solution saves a little more money than the Tesla Semi does in most scenarios, but the difference is quite narrow, with each option having its strengths and weaknesses. Both solutions are better than diesel in most scenarios, but not all of them. You don’t necessarily need to choose between the two, as an electrified trailer can still be used with an electric tractor. It works the same way in either case – using its own motors to take some of the effort off the tractor. This means extended range, for longer hauls with light loads that couldn’t quite make it on the Tesla Semi’s inherent range. And the benefit of being able to run the reefer while disconnected from the tractor or shore power remains as well. The analysis has plenty of limitations. It has to estimate future diesel costs (it used a number below current prices, but still historically high), didn’t cover financing costs, it doesn’t have real-world data for the Tesla Semi, didn’t cover electrified tractor or trailer options from other companies, can’t analyze individual charging costs site-to-site since each is specific to a utility company, didn’t cover the myriad incentives available in various regions, and most of all it didn’t consider diesel emissions, which are a huge societal cost to everyone that electrification reduces (and full electrification reduces more). So in the end, every fleet has a different use case, and should run the numbers themselves to see how either solution would fit in. But in the generalized case, it looks like there are plenty of savings available out there, whether through tractor or trailer electrification. Unfortunately, given diesel prices are at record highs right now, both of the options in the paper are a little suboptimal. Tesla Semis have been on order for almost ten years now, and Tesla only just claimed it has started production in earnest. And Range is still about a year out from volume production of its eTrailer, which it says will start in late 2027 – so, while an eTrailer will be able to slot into a fleet immediately when it’s available, it’s not available yet, which puts a damper on that potential benefit. So neither can offer immediate relief, but both offer good options for fleets to plan for the next inevitable oil shock – which is why Range didn’t base its analysis solely on current prices (remember, we just had another shock in 2022, this nonsense happens all the time, maybe it’s time to stop using oil). But, the numbers in the paper for the Tesla Semi can be compared to numbers for other electric tractors already available today, which can in turn be compared to the costs of the eTrailer, for fleets so inclined to make that comparison. See Range’s full white paper below, with much more detail than we can cover in this article: Charge your electric vehicle at home using rooftop solar panels. Find a reliable and competitively priced solar installer near you on EnergySage, for free. They have pre-vetted installers competing for your business, ensuring high-quality solutions and 20-30% savings. It’s free, with no sales calls until you choose an installer. 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