Did Tesla just scrap the idea? (original announcement - over two years ago: Battery Swap Event | Tesla Motors)
They opened one station, invite only and you had to make a reservation, and pay a fee, and go get your old battery on your return trip. They couldn't compete with the convenience and cost of the superchargers. Battery swap was always just a CARB credit grab, it never made real sense in the real world.
I meant like I haven't heard any news in that department. The announcement was in 2013, I thought they had moved on.
Huh, interesting. Who were the invites sent too? More details? - - - Updated - - - I know, that's the point. I'll edit it to avoid confusion.
Wonder if it'll still work with these: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S | Tesla Motors
The details are in the thread I linked to, but yes, it does still work, it just takes an extra few moments to remove and re-attach the shields
Yeah. Was reading through it, seems like it takes ~4 minutes. A bit longer than the initial 90 second demo. Would be cool if more stations were deployed and price was lowered to around $50 or $60. Would be WELL worth it to pack swap before a long trip.
Listen to the Talking Tesla podcast, episode 4: "A billion swaps are dead" It gives a nice summary of the battery swap program and it's demise.
I don't know about the podcast but see below: Elon Musk Comments On Failed Tesla Battery Swap Tesla sounds ready to pull the plug on promised battery-swap technology | The Verge
http://www.talkingtesla.net/ New podcast every 2 weeks, discusses Tesla news, Elon, other Elon companies. They limit it to about 30 min/episode. Website will link you to podcast on Stitcher or Apple iTunes/Podcast app. It's been up since the summer, episode 19 just dropped in the last day or so.
My trip experience indicates that the 15 minutes or less Supercharger stops generally allow a pit stop and they are compete before you finish (this wouldn't be the case in very cold/bad weather, then the SC stops would be longer). One 15 minute stop in the morning, a 45 minute stop at lunch, and a 15 minute stop in the afternoon gets a minimum of 400 miles, and more likely 500 miles. Add an additional 20-30 minute stop and you get to 600. A swap station would never compete.The only real case for battery swap is commercial users where the vehicles are in operation 24 hours. To be effective, the swap station would have to be located just for that operation. Outside of an airport would be ideal because a single swap station could service multiple commercial customers.
