Harris Ranch is getting first battery swap station

[David99]

When did they stop offering it? I have not heard about the this service getting terminated. I knew that there was a low take up rate and that they were trying to get more users to try it.

Elon mentioned it at a speech a while ago. Just not enough people used it. I think it was setup to fail, though. First of all, it took longer than they originally said. You had to make an appointment, so you could not just drive up and expect it to be swapped. That alone was a huge turn off. Having to pay doesn't help either. I think when you have to plan a stop, you go to the bathroom anyways, maybe get a drink, so Supercharging is just fine.

 

[MITE46]

Unless using the restroom takes 45 minutes...it's really too long. I think most people arrive to Harris Ranch quite empty, so there aren't a lot of quick 15 min sessions. But I agree, the points you mentioned makes it difficult to maintain.

 

[David99]

I forgot to mention the biggest downside: You had to come back and get your own battery back! And if you didn't, you had to go to the service center where they would uninstall the loaner battery and put your own back in. Very inconvenient!

 

[techmaven]

I really hope they don't give up on this. I think it is still an important consideration for the infrastructure for BEVs, even if the projects thus far haven't been all that successful.

 

[MITE46]

I agree, they've done all of the hard work, making it work under 3 minutes. They just have to find scale it so that engineers and packs can be at the right places at the right time. With one location, that is basically impossible?

 

[bxr140]

I think it is still an important consideration for the infrastructure for BEVs, even if the projects thus far haven't been all that successful.

I'm not so sure. It's a lot of capital to set up and there's really no savings on the recurring side. As battery technology and charge speeds increase, the need to battery swap on an automobile diminishes. 10 years from now ev range will far exceed the ICE average, and charge times won't be too far off fill up times.

Battery swap might make a little more sense for long haul trucks, but such a vehicle is still off in the distance and the battery swap aspect could be OBE just like on passenger cars.

 

[JRP3]

I was never a fan of swapping when Better Place tried it, and don't see any way to improve the physics to make it practical at scale. Better Place actually had an advantage in that they kept ownership of the packs so there was no issue of needing to get "your" pack back. Larger packs and more, faster, charging locations will probably kill off the concept completely, except for maybe some fleet applications.

 

[Electroman]

Battery swap for instance would be a great feature for a company or organization who routinely have a need to transport in a specific route - fleets. They could in theory buy additional batteries and store it in the swap station, just for their use only.

In any case, I am increasingly of the opinion that the development of the whole swap station technology and the slick demonstration was aimed towards squeezing more CARB credits. And then once that was achieved, the actual swap process and the business model was deliberately designed poorly, to ensure its failure. Come on, who would call ahead and fix an appt for this? And Harris Ranch is perhaps not the right place to check the pulse of swapping interest?

If there were swapping stations on those SCs that are overflowing and have queues, and you remove the call-ahead restriction, I am sure it would be success, inspite of the price differential between swap and Supercharging.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

Battery swap might have more success if Tesla's business model were different. If all batteries were leased, you could do a battery swap and not have to worry about ever returning it. End users' wouldn't worry about degradation. Tesla would then more actively manage the fleet of batteries, maybe relegating degraded batteries to the loaner fleet.

But what do I know?

 

[WarpedOne]

Battery swap for instance would be a great feature for a company or organization who routinely have a need to transport in a specific route - fleets. They could in theory buy additional batteries and store it in the swap station, just for their use only.

Such companies or organizations can still buy a fleet of teslas, set up their own stations and do the swapping.

In any case, I am increasingly of the opinion that the development of the whole swap station technology and the slick demonstration was aimed towards squeezing more CARB credits.

Easily swappable battery is also easily dis-mountable and re-mountable one - this helps in vehicle assembly and service procedures very very much. It also helps in model diversification etc.

And then once that was achieved, the actual swap process was deliberately designed poorly, to ensure its failure.

Actual swap process was deliberately designed to be as good as possible in real life. In fairy tales it could be better, for sure.

Come on, who would call ahead and fix an appt for this?

The one, that does not want to pay N times as much for a swap because the station would have to store that much more spare batteries and everything.
It would really suck if you would drive up to the station just to find out there ran out of batteries.

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

Anyone know if this swap station is still in service?

 

[David99]

Anyone know if this swap station is still in service?

It's permanently closed

 

[aesculus]

I saw that Tesla just filed a new patent for battery swap. Not sure if it's compatible to existing cars or not and probably will be some time before it shows up in the market. But at least they are still interested in the concept. Probably more suited to commercial (ie LAPD) than travel though.

 

[Owner]

I saw that Tesla just filed a new patent for battery swap. Not sure if it's compatible to existing cars or not and probably will be some time before it shows up in the market. But at least they are still interested in the concept. Probably more suited to commercial (ie LAPD) than travel though.

Interesting. Can you point us to the patent?

I think your just referring to the 2014 application which is likely what they used at Harris Ranch and not anything new. The patent process is very slow.

 

[aesculus]

Tesla’s battery swapping magic revealed in new patent application drawings

 

[Owner]

Tesla’s battery swapping magic revealed in new patent application drawings

Tesla filed for a patent called ‘Battery Swapping System and Techniques’ back in 2014, but the application was only released earlier this year and now the technical drawings attached to the application are finally available.

 

[JRP3]

Old patents:

Tesla filed for a patent called ‘Battery Swapping System and Techniques’ back in 2014, but the application was only released earlier this year and now the technical drawings attached to the application are finally available.

Edit: Beaten to the punch

 

[David99]

Battery swap can make a lot of sense in commercial transportation.

 

[S'toon]

Tesla’s battery swap station near the Harris Ranch Supercharger station in Coalinga, CA seems to have been shut down, at least for now. What started out as a company vision to recharge Tesla vehicles in the same amount of time, if not quicker, as refueling a gas vehicle, turned into a pilot program that saw little to no fanfare.

Now, three years after Tesla first demonstrated the ability to quickly swap out the floor-mounted battery on a Model S and replace it with a fully charged battery pack, the company has seemingly closed the pilot program in favor of expanding its global network of Superchargers.

The news comes from a Tesla owner who had been following the development of the battery swap station off Interstate 5 (I-5) since its first debut. TeslaOwner accounts on their blog the experience with using Tesla’s battery swap program.

<snip>

Full article at:
Tesla shuts down battery swap program in favor of Superchargers, for now

 

[MITE46]

They should bring this back...ASAP!