What about weight? Gates says "the more batteries you use, the more weight you add—and the more power you need" but power for what? A heavy battery in a truck on the ground needs no power to continue existing. This is true when the vehicle is parked or in motion. At highway speed, air resistance is the main force that the engine has to overcome.

Extra battery weight is a factor in getting up to speed. Force equals mass times acceleration, so if the mass of the vehicle doubles, the same engine force will accelerate the truck half as fast. Semi truck 0-60 mph times seem to be about a minute. Compared to the many hours of a long-haul voyage, adding a minute or two to get up to speed is no big deal.

You fell prey to one of the classic blunders of Dynamics 101, conflating power and energy.

Double the mass, and you double the acceleration time is power draw is the same. But energy to accelerate to speed al is also proportional to mass: energy = power draw × time = 1/2 × mass × velocity².

And this increased energy cost isn't a one time thing, it applies every time you push the accelerator, every grade, every time someone cuts you off and you have to slow and regain speed.

Electrifying freight trains is the probably the simplest technologically, its existing technology, assembled in a new configuration. Probably the hardest politically/legally though.