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Absolutely. If the battery were easily swappable, either by me or a low cost service center, AND a promise of bigger batteries was made, I'd probably bite. Bu

by axaxs 5y ago

Absolutely. If the battery were easily swappable, either by me or a low cost service center, AND a promise of bigger batteries was made, I'd probably bite. But as it sits, it seems like batteries are very central to the car and rather cost prohibitive to swap out.

ortusdux 5y ago
After swearing up and down that they would never do battery swaps, Tesla demonstrated a 90 second swap back in 2012. They held a few events in California to get enough swaps to meet ZEV benchmarks and get nearly $300mil. When they were called out they removed any reference to the program and pretended like it never happened. https://web.archive.org/web/20140331102655/http://www.teslamotors.com/batteryswap https://web.archive.org/web/20140331102655/http://www.teslam... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Controversies
- munk-a 5y ago
  Battery swaps are incredibly costly for the company - those units generally cost more than 10k - sometimes as high as 20k. Given that they are the majority of the cost of the vehicle it's not a great business proposition for manufacturers to offer to replace a battery for anything less than the majority of the cost of a new vehicle which consumers simply won't go for.
  - freeone3000 5y ago
    You get the uncharged battery back, though, which you can then charge and give to another person. It's like a propane cylinder swap.
    - tln 5y ago
      ...just 500 times more expensive. Propane capacity isn't going to go down as the tanks age; losing 10% when swapping in an older battery could really suck.
jgalt212 5y ago
IIRC, when Formula E used to have pit stops, the driver would enter a new car rather than swapping out or charging batteries.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
There are companies upgrading the batteries in early Leafs. This seems to work because the newer model batteries are similar enough that they can be made to work. They aren't re-celling the originals. My guess is as the market grows this will become more common.

by axaxs 5y ago

ortusdux 5y ago

After swearing up and down that they would never do battery swaps, Tesla demonstrated a 90 second swap back in 2012. They held a few events in California to get enough swaps to meet ZEV benchmarks and get nearly $300mil. When they were called out they removed any reference to the program and pretended like it never happened. https://web.archive.org/web/20140331102655/http://www.teslamotors.com/batteryswap https://web.archive.org/web/20140331102655/http://www.teslam... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Controversies

munk-a 5y ago
Battery swaps are incredibly costly for the company - those units generally cost more than 10k - sometimes as high as 20k. Given that they are the majority of the cost of the vehicle it's not a great business proposition for manufacturers to offer to replace a battery for anything less than the majority of the cost of a new vehicle which consumers simply won't go for.
- freeone3000 5y ago
  You get the uncharged battery back, though, which you can then charge and give to another person. It's like a propane cylinder swap.
  - tln 5y ago
    ...just 500 times more expensive. Propane capacity isn't going to go down as the tanks age; losing 10% when swapping in an older battery could really suck.

jgalt212 5y ago

IIRC, when Formula E used to have pit stops, the driver would enter a new car rather than swapping out or charging batteries.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

There are companies upgrading the batteries in early Leafs. This seems to work because the newer model batteries are similar enough that they can be made to work. They aren't re-celling the originals. My guess is as the market grows this will become more common.