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Harris Ranch is getting first battery swap station
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glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
Sure sounds like Tesla is ready to stick a fork in battery swap and call it done. For those who frequent Harris Ranch, is it usually crickets over at the swap station? Only 4 users really?
Maybe it was only 4 of their first 200 invites, but I'm doing it next month and was challenged to find an appointment spot availability on the days I had preferred... (they have slots from ~9am to ~5pm weekdays).
So I'm sure it's a lot more than 4 people who have or will be using it now... though not clear if actual 'wider beta' uptake is merely tenfold or hundredfold from the first invitees...
Owner
Active Member
He didn't say it was 4 or 5 people now.. He referred it to more as the same ratio and that all owners in California were invited.
A 2% take rate might actually mean more like 300 Model S owners in California willing to do it now.
Harris Ranch might actually turn out to be the wrong place for the swap station. At halfway, people might very well want to take a break and rest. Right outside a major city has a different dynamic. If instead, they had built two, one at Gilroy and one at Tejon Ranch, you have several more common usage factors. Maybe you didn't charge enough for a spur of the moment long distance trip but you have enough to make it to one of these and then swap for the next jump. Maybe you're coming into town and you're tired/running late/etc. and now are willing to pay for the swap. I'm sure battery swap would be used by those bottlenecked at San Juan Capistrano.
It would be interesting to identify the long distance corridors that are most used by Tesla owners. I presume Tesla has this information.
If you are interesting in battery swap, I think it is important to let Tesla know so that they don't have the mistaken impression that you don't care.
Harris Ranch might actually turn out to be the wrong place for the swap station. At halfway, people might very well want to take a break and rest. Right outside a major city has a different dynamic. If instead, they had built two, one at Gilroy and one at Tejon Ranch, you have several more common usage factors. Maybe you didn't charge enough for a spur of the moment long distance trip but you have enough to make it to one of these and then swap for the next jump. Maybe you're coming into town and you're tired/running late/etc. and now are willing to pay for the swap. I'm sure battery swap would be used by those bottlenecked at San Juan Capistrano.
It would be interesting to identify the long distance corridors that are most used by Tesla owners. I presume Tesla has this information.
If you are interesting in battery swap, I think it is important to let Tesla know so that they don't have the mistaken impression that you don't care.
I'm a S85 owner in Menlo Park, CA with extended family in LA. We've made four SF-to-LA round trips via Harris Ranch since October 2014 most recently this past weekend. I've yet to receive a battery swap invite so I'm puzzled by statements that all CA owners have now been invited to swap.
I walked over to the Harris Ranch swap station during both charging breaks this past weekend. There was a white P85 with manufacturer plates "over the pit" in the swap building but there was nobody on site and it didn't look like any active swapping was happening.
In my limited experience a swap makes the most sense when I need a full battery to make the next leg of a trip. E.g., southbound to LA swapping at Harris Ranch wouldn't matter to us since we stop again in Tejon just before the Grapevine pass to get enough charge to arrive LA safely. However northbound to SF swapping at Harris would be a big help since we typically wait to charge to near full so that we can get back to SF without another charging stop. Would we swap going south to make our north return easier? Maybe. It wouldn't be a huge win for us so the price would need to be lower than what I've heard ($80?) otherwise I'd prefer to buy a very nice steak.
Amazing car. Cheers.
I walked over to the Harris Ranch swap station during both charging breaks this past weekend. There was a white P85 with manufacturer plates "over the pit" in the swap building but there was nobody on site and it didn't look like any active swapping was happening.
In my limited experience a swap makes the most sense when I need a full battery to make the next leg of a trip. E.g., southbound to LA swapping at Harris Ranch wouldn't matter to us since we stop again in Tejon just before the Grapevine pass to get enough charge to arrive LA safely. However northbound to SF swapping at Harris would be a big help since we typically wait to charge to near full so that we can get back to SF without another charging stop. Would we swap going south to make our north return easier? Maybe. It wouldn't be a huge win for us so the price would need to be lower than what I've heard ($80?) otherwise I'd prefer to buy a very nice steak.
Amazing car. Cheers.
aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
I think you just hit the nail on the head. You need a 45 min break anyway so why not get a steak at the same time for less money.:smile:
Because you're vegetarian in a hurry? Or you're vegan and you don't want to warm the planet?
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Vegetarian here, there's plenty to eat there. Vegan may be tougher, not sure. Luckily there are a few more options across the road I think.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Ah, ok. Well I don't call that an EV*, but let's not get into naming. I now understand your confusion in the previous post.
Edit:
* JRP knows what I mean, I presume; it's a reference to another thread not a typo.
The two powerwalls have different chemistries. I expect for their own use Tesla can make use of the type most available, and just program the charge controller and inverter appropriately. I expect their hardware is lithium chemistry agnostic.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Tesla can only use the most energy dense version of NCA chemistry for their vehicles, I believe they use less energy dense versions of NCA, as well as NMC, for the different powerwalls.
We don't even the the energy density of the car cells, how do we know the energy density of the powerwall?
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I just got an email inviting my to make a battery swap appointment at Harris Ranch. So the program seems to be alive for now. I was wondering what Elon was talking about when he said invitations had gone out and there were no takers. I have charged at Harris Ranch so it would seem I should have been invited earlier.
jvonbokel
John VonBokel
I would assume that this is part of the reason the appointments are necessary, so that batteries in storage can be kept at a lower SOC. Also, I'd imagine when charging to 100% in anticipation of a swap, they may cool the batteries a little more aggressively than is practical for a battery installed in a car. Finally, there's no concern for the end user, because you always get your original battery back anyway. Long-term, Tesla might have to be concerned about people using that top 10% of their loaner batteries while on road trips, but I'm sure they've taken that into consideration.
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