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This seems to point towards a battery lease solution. Having to worry about the relative cost of your battery vs the one you are swapping for could make this a

• SCdF 13y ago
  It looks like a great place for Tesla to find old batteries and remove them from circulation. Leasing seems like a good idea (pay X per year and you can use these stations and you'll always end up with a battery of a certain acceptable quality), according to the video though it does cost money.
  • marme 13y ago
    this seems like the only reasonable solution that would get people to use this. When people buy these cars they should get the option to sign up for this service that includes a yearly cost that covers the maintenance and replacement of batteries. This way they can just let people swap batteries without worrying about getting different batteries and it also alleviates the worries about having to eventually replace all the batteries in the car. If this way is not economically feasible than Tesla is dead already, this is the only option that will make sense to consumers and Tesla needs to make it happen.
  • lettergram 13y ago
    It would cost money, but I'd bet less than gasoline. The station could use a mix of solar power, wind, power grid and charge the batteries for probably much less $/kWh than gasoline in a car.
    • SCdF 13y ago
      It would be interesting to try to work out for certain types of people the cost of powering an Tesla. When you fill up a petrol / diesel engine you have one option: petrol / diesel. When you fill up an Tesla (and other electric cars have different possibilities) you have: - Recharging on your home power, which would cost whatever your home power costs but can only be used when you are OK charging over night - Recharging at one of those Tesla fast stations, which costs nothing, but takes 40min - Swapping a battery at a Tesla station, which takes 90 seconds and costs $?? The price then depends on the mix of those three strategies, which is determined by your usage (drive to and from work every day, it's your home power etc)
  • Already__Taken 13y ago
    I'm assuming the tesla doesn't phone home here but battery swapping also allows tesla to keep a much closer eye on the packs and possibly even swap faulty batteries without owners knowing. That might be worth it to save the PR of a burnt out tesla from a failed battery.
• hmottestad 13y ago
  It says on engadget that the driver can either get paid or pay the difference, or simply pick up their own pack on the way back.
• tommoor 13y ago
  Totally agreed, this seems much more sensible than returning the battery to get yours back later...
• monkeypizza 13y ago
  I don't believe batteries are solid units - I think they are made up of thousands of individual smaller batteries. So Tesla can probably swap out the smaller pieces in chunks to keep any one battery from getting too bad.
• timroman 13y ago
  Who says you have to lease one physical battery. Perhaps the battery lease is "a" battery and not "your" battery and Tesla takes care of maintaining them all. And when new batteries come out, you can have the option of upgrading to those. In the future, the station could have three types of batteries for customers to choose from, just like gas. Sounds like when I get my propane tank filled. They don't care what condition it is in. I get a freshly painted filled one every time. And if I want, I can pay for a bigger one.