Tesla Motors has confirmed plans to begin a battery-swapping programme as soon as the end of December this year at a dedicated facility in California. Unlike its Supercharger platform which allows owners to charge their cars in more or less an hour, the battery swap process is expected to take no more than three minutes.
The pilot programme is open to selected Tesla Model S owners for now. Unlike Tesla’s Supercharger, which is free to use, the battery-swap programme is expected to cost owners “slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan” and is available by appointment only.
At the moment, the entire process is said to take roughly three minutes due to the removal of the titanium and hardened aluminium ballistic plates that shield the battery pack. The company is aiming to reduce this time slot to “less than one minute” with further experience in the future.
Back in 2013, Tesla Motors demonstrated a similar battery-swapping process that took roughly a minute and a half to complete. Should the programme receive positive feedback, the company will evaluate its merits before deciding to increase the availability of said facility.
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Thats interesting. But it still needs to be swapped at a Tesla dealer/service centre correct? Can’t be buying the battery & swapping it myself at home?
Would be better if the owner can have a few batteries, which can keep at home or work. These batteries can be left to charge, then when full, just swap them in for the discharged battery which is then charged back to full.
You think this is a mobile phone arr? Swap battery at home…
Unscrew the titanium plate and change 400V battery on yourself? Better get a PA insurance first.
Later car catch fire and letup. LOL.
I don’t think it is advisable to keep extra EV battery due to this reasons :
1) purchase cost of battery is high. The cost will drop every year as technology advanced.
2) as technology advanced, the current technology will soon become obsolete very fast.
It’s a freakishly huge battery pack, spanning around the entire cabin floor area. You probably also need specialized equipment to access the battery and pop it out and load a new one back in. And where are you gonna keep it? It’s not good to expose these things to moisture.
better to create power bank for those batteries..the total time will be less than 1 minutes because juz need to connect the power bank to the batteries only..like usb from power bank to the phone..haha..
yeah, power bank for a car…
come out bigger than your car.
might as well you say solar powered + rechargeable battery.
here’s an interesting thought. Why not they make something like a roofbox attachment that contains batteries for long distance driving? And for even longer distance like interstate driving in the US, have something like a caravan full of batteries. Owners can just rent/buy them if they need it.