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Well, presumably the swapping company would make sure the batteries are well maintained. If someone swaps out a damaged battery, the process should detect that

Well, presumably the swapping company would make sure the batteries are well maintained. If someone swaps out a damaged battery, the process should detect that and charge them extra, and not put the bad battery in the queue for swapping.

skaevola 13y ago
That opens up a whole can of worms. How do you quantify the damage? If my battery is degraded 10% do I pay $15,000 * .1 = $1,500 just to get back on the highway? Like I said, this is easy if the customers don't own the batteries, but right now they do, and those batteries are very expensive. I think perfecting the whole supercharging system makes more sense.
- waster 13y ago
  If I were Tesla, I'd do both.
  - incompatible 13y ago
    Which would be nice for owners. Recharge your battery until it shows signs of age. Then swap it out repeatedly until you get a newish one, then go back to recharging only.
    - schiffern 13y ago
      Self-service battery warranty. It's a win-win.
    - akiselev 13y ago
      Combine it with a better recycling process: lithium based batteries are insanely energy intensive to produce to begin with so they are a great candidate. Then, chose the most efficient point in the life cycle to recycle the battery to recover the most cost. Since you're extremely unlikely to use a swap station for the first time after having used the car a long time, the risk to Tesla can be minimized. Factor in the price of recycling with a cynical view of the average user and everyone gets a price decrease on the batteries without the sticker shock of seeing the battery cost all at once. Really you'd sell your Tesla's with an already recycled battery and a couple of years of swapping thrown in. You can price it just like you price car insurance, based on amount of miles driven a year. Anything that puts more control of the most unproven tech into the hands of Tesla, the faster their batteries will improve. But maybe this is all just too expensive to implement without millions of cars on the road.
monting 13y ago
Agreed. Though I imagine it'd be a subscription model, where if you're in the program, you won't have to worry about battery capacity/depreciation at all. The capacity of batteries in rotation would be maintained at a certain level, and the old batteries recycled or used as storage for the superchargers. I think it could potentially cost less than the monthly cost of gasoline for most people.
- schiffern 13y ago
  >used as storage for the superchargers Superchargers don't use batteries. SolarCity does, though. http://www.solarcity.com/residential/energy-storage.aspx http://www.solarcity.com/residential/energy-storage.aspx
  - monting 13y ago
    Oh but they do/will. Musk said that the ones with solar panels can go completely off the grid and continue to work in a zombie apocalypse. The only way that is accomplished is through energy storage. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100777849 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100777849

skaevola 13y ago

That opens up a whole can of worms. How do you quantify the damage? If my battery is degraded 10% do I pay $15,000 * .1 = $1,500 just to get back on the highway? Like I said, this is easy if the customers don't own the batteries, but right now they do, and those batteries are very expensive. I think perfecting the whole supercharging system makes more sense.

waster 13y ago
If I were Tesla, I'd do both.
- incompatible 13y ago
  Which would be nice for owners. Recharge your battery until it shows signs of age. Then swap it out repeatedly until you get a newish one, then go back to recharging only.
  - schiffern 13y ago
    Self-service battery warranty. It's a win-win.
  - akiselev 13y ago
    Combine it with a better recycling process: lithium based batteries are insanely energy intensive to produce to begin with so they are a great candidate. Then, chose the most efficient point in the life cycle to recycle the battery to recover the most cost. Since you're extremely unlikely to use a swap station for the first time after having used the car a long time, the risk to Tesla can be minimized. Factor in the price of recycling with a cynical view of the average user and everyone gets a price decrease on the batteries without the sticker shock of seeing the battery cost all at once. Really you'd sell your Tesla's with an already recycled battery and a couple of years of swapping thrown in. You can price it just like you price car insurance, based on amount of miles driven a year. Anything that puts more control of the most unproven tech into the hands of Tesla, the faster their batteries will improve. But maybe this is all just too expensive to implement without millions of cars on the road.

monting 13y ago

Agreed. Though I imagine it'd be a subscription model, where if you're in the program, you won't have to worry about battery capacity/depreciation at all. The capacity of batteries in rotation would be maintained at a certain level, and the old batteries recycled or used as storage for the superchargers. I think it could potentially cost less than the monthly cost of gasoline for most people.

schiffern 13y ago
>used as storage for the superchargers Superchargers don't use batteries. SolarCity does, though. http://www.solarcity.com/residential/energy-storage.aspx http://www.solarcity.com/residential/energy-storage.aspx
- monting 13y ago
  Oh but they do/will. Musk said that the ones with solar panels can go completely off the grid and continue to work in a zombie apocalypse. The only way that is accomplished is through energy storage. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100777849 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100777849