Video: Tesla's Battery Swap In Action
Published: June 21st, 2013
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Those of you wondering exactly how Tesla’s battery swap technology works, here’s your answer. The fully automated system, said to be akin to a carwash, supposedly takes just 90 seconds. To prove the point, Tesla did a side-by-side comparison with an Audi A8 at a fuel pump. It should be noted that the A8 has an enormous 23.8 gallon tank. As Bertel points out, the battery swap system isn’t cheap – but for the folks who are buying a Model S anyways, it’s not a big deal.
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This demonstration was a bit unfair to the Audi, considering that it has double the range of the Tesla. There's probably another 30 seconds to a minute in additional time that the Tesla would face just having to pull off the highway for a 2nd "tank" of fuel (in addition to the battery swap time itself), while the Audi could continue to cruise on.
Very impressive but it is a stop gap measure. We need 300mi+ range and charging in 10 minutes or less. IMO, super capacitors are the answer to this problem and will cross that final hurdle to making electric cars a real win for consumers. I applaud Elon's efforts but I damn well wish he would get back to building rockets. He's a lot better at that.
This is a big deal for Tesla. The S is a very attractive sedan and will be vehicle #2 or 3 for the household of purchasers in the target demographic. 95+% of the time the daily use is well within the range of the pack. Now if the owner wants to head from say, Seattle to Portland for the weekend, he/she can take the beautiful sedan instead of the minivan/suv with no worries and get the original battery pack back on the way back. Tesla just removed the major phychological barrier to the purchase of their product. Will swapping be necessary more than once or twice per year, nope. But it is an option (when built out, all rights reserved, etc, etc). And don't discount what a PITA hitting a gas station is, in the rain/wind/etc. They are also becoming harder to find in urban areas. How nice it must be to leave home each morning fully fueled.
After reading a couple of different articles on the battery swap, I found the reporting from theregister.co.uk and Bloomberg.com offered a bit on insight on WHY they are deploying this tech. Tax Credits. From el reg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/21/tesla_battery_swap_tech/ "Each swapping station is projected to cost around $500,000 to build, but it won't all be money out of Tesla's pocket. The 90-second swapping time helps Tesla meet the "fast refueling" requirement for zero-emissions vehicles set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which allows the cars to qualify for government clean-energy credits. Because Tesla cars burn no fuel and they're manufactured in such small quantities relative to the big US automakers, Tesla actually earns surplus energy credits, which it can sell to other companies. Last quarter, such sales brought in $67.9m, which helped Tesla post its first-ever quarterly profit."