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It's really ironic that you bring this up because Better Place burned through $850 million in capital building out the infrastructure and intellectual property

It's really ironic that you bring this up because Better Place burned through $850 million in capital building out the infrastructure and intellectual property for hot-swappable batteries before they gave up the ghost. Their model was based on car owners not owning the batteries, instead paying Better Place per distance driven, and in return getting free battery swaps at special stations that would swap out depleted batteries for fresh ones in two minutes, plus "free" charging at branded charging points that were built into parking spaces. Under such a model, Better Place was on the hook for battery health - not the car owner. They failed because Renault didn't deliver in the quantities needed and they tried to make up the cash shortfall by over-pricing the distance fees (more expensive than gasoline costs unless you regularly drove huge distances). Too many ducks needed to line up and investors stopped ponying up. It's fair to say that they were before their time - they probably could have gotten SoftBank to throw them another ten figures, but the Vision Fund didn't exist back then. Tesla looked at battery swapping after Better Place proved feasibility and passed, probably due to the cost of retrofitting to the existing design and various engineering compromises (specifically related to speed and acceleration, which Musk prizes) that would be needed.

jsight 7y ago
> Tesla looked at battery swapping after Better Place proved feasibility and passed, probably due to the cost of retrofitting to the existing design and various engineering compromises (specifically related to speed and acceleration, which Musk prizes) that would be needed. The Model S demonstrated battery swapping technology. There was no retrofitting to the design needed, as it was designed to support it from the beginning.
- filoleg 7y ago
  I think the parent comment was talking more about battery swapping in lieu of charging to save time, not as a "once in a while" kind of thing. As far as I know, swapping a battery for a Model S will take quite a while at a service center.
  - jsight 7y ago
    Not at all, it was demonstrated as taking 5 minutes on a production Model S. They also built one swap station. Some say it was all done for show and they never had any intention of following through. From the interviews with Musk at the time, I got the impression that it was more of a defensive move in case the concept started to gain traction. Either way, though, the vehicle was built for it and it literally took the same time as a gas fillup. I'm sure the demonstration videos are still on Youtube if you are interested.

jsight 7y ago

> Tesla looked at battery swapping after Better Place proved feasibility and passed, probably due to the cost of retrofitting to the existing design and various engineering compromises (specifically related to speed and acceleration, which Musk prizes) that would be needed. The Model S demonstrated battery swapping technology. There was no retrofitting to the design needed, as it was designed to support it from the beginning.

filoleg 7y ago
I think the parent comment was talking more about battery swapping in lieu of charging to save time, not as a "once in a while" kind of thing. As far as I know, swapping a battery for a Model S will take quite a while at a service center.
- jsight 7y ago
  Not at all, it was demonstrated as taking 5 minutes on a production Model S. They also built one swap station. Some say it was all done for show and they never had any intention of following through. From the interviews with Musk at the time, I got the impression that it was more of a defensive move in case the concept started to gain traction. Either way, though, the vehicle was built for it and it literally took the same time as a gas fillup. I'm sure the demonstration videos are still on Youtube if you are interested.