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When Owners Will Choose Battery Swap

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Skotty

2014 S P85 | 2023 F-150L
Jun 27, 2013
2,685
2,255
Kansas City, MO
A lot of the time, it seems people judge whether or not a battery swap station would be used based entirely on basic owner interest. In the Shareholder meeting, Elon talked about people just not being particularly interested in the battery swap.

In my opinion, this is completely looking at it in the wrong way. People won't choose battery swap because it is faster. People will choose battery swap when it avoids (often unexpected) congestion delays.

Here's a really easy way to think about it.

You show up at a Tesla charging site, there is an open battery swap bay and an open Supercharger. Which do you pick?

You show up at a Tesla charging site, there is an open battery swap bay and NO open Superchargers. Which do you pick?

It's not going to be about what people want. It's going to be about how crowded the stations get. Battery swap is a pressure relief valve. If Tesla can continue build out such that Superchargers remain mostly open, there will be very little battery swap use. But if Supercharger build out lags and stations start getting crowded, battery swap use (if available) will rise dramatically.
 
A lot of the time, it seems people judge whether or not a battery swap station would be used based entirely on basic owner interest. In the Shareholder meeting, Elon talked about people just not being particularly interested in the battery swap.

In my opinion, this is completely looking at it in the wrong way. People won't choose battery swap because it is faster. People will choose battery swap when it avoids (often unexpected) congestion delays.

Here's a really easy way to think about it.

You show up at a Tesla charging site, there is an open battery swap bay and an open Supercharger. Which do you pick?

You show up at a Tesla charging site, there is an open battery swap bay and NO open Superchargers. Which do you pick?

It's not going to be about what people want. It's going to be about how crowded the stations get. Battery swap is a pressure relief valve. If Tesla can continue build out such that Superchargers remain mostly open, there will be very little battery swap use. But if Supercharger build out lags and stations start getting crowded, battery swap use (if available) will rise dramatically.

I agree in a way. The owner who has not planned for a charge stop, who has had delays, and who needs to get somewhere (like a meeting) would welcome a 5 minute charge instead of a 35 minute charge.

But if Tesla decides to build out superchargers instead of swap stations, I think a lot more people will be served. If a SC station gets crowded on a regular basis, a few more plugs might solve the problem for a lot less expense than building a swap station.

And there are still MANY holes in the SC map, with several holes even in the long range 2016 plan. I'd rather see more people served than try to ease one person's mind who hasn't planned far enough.

As for swapping for a bigger battery for a road trip, the service centers can swap batteries. I wonder how much rent an 85kWh might cost for a month, with the owner coming back and picking up his 40 or 60 when the trip is done.
 
@roblab
So my initial post was considering this from a user's perspective. But I think you may be right, and that Tesla can probably build out more Superchargers where needed faster than they could build out battery swap stations. End result may be that there is no good reason to build battery swap stations, unless people just really want them. Which takes us full circle. I guess I was wrong. Perhaps it is just about whether or not people want to use them.
 
To me battery swap meant "unlimited warranty" for the battery.

Imagine you're unhappy / uncertain about your battery, just go and swap it for another one! Even after the 8 year warranty period I would guess.

If if they don't introduce Battery Swap in a large scale, that means the reassurance regarding the battery wanes, at least a bit ...
 
To me battery swap meant "unlimited warranty" for the battery.

Battery swap today requires the owner to return for his original battery.

Swapping for any battery would mean Tesla is selling "battery as a service", which they are not.

Battery swap gets really complicated, real quick as a business model. Superchargers are more straightforward. I do think Tesla will build all cars with a swappable batteries, however. Musk said there are manufacturing and servicing advantages. There are also some interesting long term battery possibilities such as renting, leasing, and upgrading. Removable battery potentially improves the long term value of the car too. When there are a lot of old Tesla's, there can be a secondary battery market. Then the used Tesla value isn't entirely tied up with the battery.