> An electric drivetrain achieves around 90%, so you only need roughly 1,600 kWh of battery capacity for equivalent range. At 0.25 kWh/kg, that’s still about 6.4 tonnes of battery — roughly 18 times heavier than the 350 kg diesel tank and fuel it replaces
This misses the fact that the motor and transmission on an electric truck is lighter than the diesel. This doesn't completely negate the issue but it does help and is not mentioned.
The 15 liter diesel engine is about 3500 lbs and the transmission with many gears is another 700 lbs.
The Tesla Semi has 3 model S motors with single speed transmissions each one is about 300 lbs with inverter so there are at least 2-3000 lbs weight savings in the drivetrain to consider.
In the US Electric semis get an extra 2000 lbs payload allowance too too so they can be 82k lbs total rather than 80.