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There was an Israeli company trying to do this. Telsas now seem to be built around the battery pack, which is now a large flat heavy sled. I wouldn't be surpri

by zizee 7y ago

There was an Israeli company trying to do this. Telsas now seem to be built around the battery pack, which is now a large flat heavy sled. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all to do with the practicality of low center of gravity, structural integrity, safety that such a configuration provides.

zeristor 7y ago
I believe it was called a Better Place, from what I recall Renault was big on it, as was the Danish government. I wondered about this since you don't own the battery people won't be taking due care of it, it would be very capital intensive to have the battery replacement stations though. I got the gist right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)
CrazyStat 7y ago
The Model S and X were designed so that the battery can be swapped from below, and Tesla ran one station for several years where you could get this done. That station closed sometime in or around 2016 and they haven't talked about it since. The Model 3 and presumably future cars do not support battery swapping.
- paranoidrobot 7y ago
  The one battery swap station was never really 'open' so much as trialled. It was a closed invite-only program, you had to book an appointment, and then come back and collect your original battery at a later date. Saying they ran it for years is a reach, since it doesn't seem to have opened even for pilot programs until sometime in mid/late 2015[1], and was already seemingly closed in May of 2016[0]. It didn't work anywhere near as slick as in their stage demo suggested. Taking up to 15 minutes for a pack swap the first time, and 5 minutes thereafter. There's suggestions that it was, at least in part, a tactic to get a greater share of credits[1] which Tesla sells to other car manufacturers[2]. Whether it was intended to be a real program or not is unclear, but they did give up on it pretty quickly in favour of a greater deployment of their Supercharging program. [0] https://electrek.co/2016/05/10/tesla-battery-swap-program-supercharger/ https://electrek.co/2016/05/10/tesla-battery-swap-program-su... [1] https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096570_about-that-one-tesla-battery-swapping-station-an-update https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096570_about-that-one-... [2] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/tesla-sold-carbon-emissions-credits-to-general-motors-fiat-chryser-2019-6 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/tesla-sold-carbon-emissio...

by zizee 7y ago

zeristor 7y ago

I believe it was called a Better Place, from what I recall Renault was big on it, as was the Danish government. I wondered about this since you don't own the battery people won't be taking due care of it, it would be very capital intensive to have the battery replacement stations though. I got the gist right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)

CrazyStat 7y ago

The Model S and X were designed so that the battery can be swapped from below, and Tesla ran one station for several years where you could get this done. That station closed sometime in or around 2016 and they haven't talked about it since. The Model 3 and presumably future cars do not support battery swapping.

paranoidrobot 7y ago
The one battery swap station was never really 'open' so much as trialled. It was a closed invite-only program, you had to book an appointment, and then come back and collect your original battery at a later date. Saying they ran it for years is a reach, since it doesn't seem to have opened even for pilot programs until sometime in mid/late 2015[1], and was already seemingly closed in May of 2016[0]. It didn't work anywhere near as slick as in their stage demo suggested. Taking up to 15 minutes for a pack swap the first time, and 5 minutes thereafter. There's suggestions that it was, at least in part, a tactic to get a greater share of credits[1] which Tesla sells to other car manufacturers[2]. Whether it was intended to be a real program or not is unclear, but they did give up on it pretty quickly in favour of a greater deployment of their Supercharging program. [0] https://electrek.co/2016/05/10/tesla-battery-swap-program-supercharger/ https://electrek.co/2016/05/10/tesla-battery-swap-program-su... [1] https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096570_about-that-one-tesla-battery-swapping-station-an-update https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096570_about-that-one-... [2] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/tesla-sold-carbon-emissions-credits-to-general-motors-fiat-chryser-2019-6 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/tesla-sold-carbon-emissio...