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Harris Ranch is getting first battery swap station
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palmer_md
Member
I stopped in yesterday to take a look. Not much to see yet. They have the area all fenced off and there is a tractor inside the building, but no real changes to the area yet, looks more like setting up at this point.
I was there yesterday and it's still fenced off, doesn't look like any work going on yet.
On a related note, I think I figured out why they may be putting the first swap station in Harris Ranch. I thought I would always prefer to Supercharge than to swap, but to get away from the stench of manure in 3 minutes instead of 30 may be worth the added cost.
On a related note, I think I figured out why they may be putting the first swap station in Harris Ranch. I thought I would always prefer to Supercharge than to swap, but to get away from the stench of manure in 3 minutes instead of 30 may be worth the added cost.
Tyl
Active Member
All the behind the scenes work is complete and construction of the battery swap station at Harris Ranch CA is underway. It started earlier this week. Here are a few photos, although not much to see, most of the work being done today is inside the old carwash building.
Tyl
Active Member
Yes! The contract and all the details that go with it were apparently the hang up. I'm sure Harris Ranch wanted the building to keep it's original design etc. to fit in with existing building on the ranch while Tesla needed to be sure this first battery swap station would meet Tesla's needs etc. I'm sure contractors scratched their heads too when they looked at the bid project and had to figure out what exactly they would be building .... how to do it, and keep costs down. We may also see different renditions of battery swap stations as we did with original superchargers and their pedestals. Time will tell.
I'm wondering where else we may see battery swap stations? Hawthorne? Fremont? Tejon Ranch? (A lot of work is currently going on at Hawthorne!!!)
Tesla has the data on where the bottlenecks are on the weekends and other peak travel days. Elon recently stated as much. Superchargers are busy on the weekends ......and on weekdays...... not so much!!
Battery swap stations really need to be where the bottlenecks are. Some may want to supercharge where others may just want to swap, $, and keep traveling. 90 seconds sure seems reasonable!
I'm wondering where else we may see battery swap stations? Hawthorne? Fremont? Tejon Ranch? (A lot of work is currently going on at Hawthorne!!!)
Tesla has the data on where the bottlenecks are on the weekends and other peak travel days. Elon recently stated as much. Superchargers are busy on the weekends ......and on weekdays...... not so much!!
Battery swap stations really need to be where the bottlenecks are. Some may want to supercharge where others may just want to swap, $, and keep traveling. 90 seconds sure seems reasonable!
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callmesam
Member
After the original demolition at Hawthorne, I'd almost convinced myself that we'd see swap implementation closer to a TM service/facility, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
While the idea of swapping batteries is awesome, the practicality is where I have trouble with. Since the battery is so expensive and there is a wide range of age of the cars, how would it work with one person has an old battery and another one a new one. No one wants a battery that is old and be stuck with it. I certainly don't. So how will this work? Do you have to pick up your own battery again at some point. And if yes, how long is the hold period? If a lot of cars are using these stations they would have to hold a lot of batteries that they can't give to someone else because the original owner could come back any time. What if I'm just passing through and don't plan on coming back to that station?
NoCO
Member
I'm going to guess that in the long run Tesla may have to rent/lease the battery. You don't own it, you pay a monthly/yearly fee. I think Smart is doing this.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
I agree that the actual logistics could be challenging, and I don't expect swapping to become widespread. Longer range packs and faster charge rates will likely make swapping unnecessary. What they have said is if you want your old battery back you go back to that swap station, if you don't want to go back to the swap station you pay to have it shipped to you, if you get a newer battery and want to keep it you pay the difference. I'm not sure what they do if you get an older battery, since just doing another swap might not guarantee that you'd get a newer battery.
I really think the only way swapping works is if you move to a lease model on the battery packs. Otherwise, the logistical issues are just overwhelming. If you can't reuse the packs that people drop off at the station, you need to keep a lot more "new" packs on hand to swap, and you've got to have a lot more storage space for the "old" packs. That's not even getting into the deleterious effects of shipping the packs around, which would presumably be done by truck. Suddenly, your gas-less travel just got a lot less gas-less.
A leasing model makes good sense in terms of managing risks on pack degradation, too. As Tesla moves more into the mainstream market, where people may not be able to budget for a $10,000+ pack replacement, offering a lease on the pack would permit you to offer a guaranteed level of pack performance. Those packs that feel below the threshold could be recycled to SCTY or elsewhere.
Although I'd imagine they also want to see what the utilization is in places where it's not simply a mater of local charger bottleneck, but if the time-savings is sufficient value proposition to support having a swap station there.
It may be that in some areas the hour's time savings for a full charge is sufficient for folks to fork over the cash. I'm thinking about the I-95 corridor I was just on here on the East coast. For some people saving an hour on their way to NY or DC might be well worth it, even though the chargers out here are rarely congested.
No, he really meant Demolition. The Hawthorne Supercharger site is undergoing a sort of re-building right now. See this thread.
callmesam
Member
No. The Hawthorne Supercharger has been demolished (6 stalls) and there will now be 13 Superchargers and 10 HPWCs.
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Several factors go into why an otherwise superfluous technology (swap) would be incorporated by Tesla:
1. ZEV credits. Most understand that only by actually doing fast fill can Tesla get additional credits. Just Q3, TM sold ~90M in ZEV credits.
2. Increased battery capacity roll-out: when the 100kWh pack is released, this station (and others) will be fast efficient ways for older cars to be upgraded in 90 seconds.
3. Battery backup: TM has already stated that each Supercharger will have some sort of battery backup to allow for reducing costs for electricity.
4. Lease: mentioned above, reducing the cost by leasing a battery could allow the MS to be sold to an even larger audience.
But lease isn't necessary. Imagine the scenario above where you are driving your 85 from LA to SF for work. 90 second stop on the way north for a 115kWh battery with 375 miles of range. Drive around the bay area. Maybe Supercharger or trickle charge while there. Maybe not. Head south and swap depleted battery for customer owned battery. Time savings: 90 minutes to 2 hours.
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