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The cost is fine, about what it costs to fill a gas tank, give or take. But what about this: "Drivers who choose to swap must reclaim their original battery on

The cost is fine, about what it costs to fill a gas tank, give or take. But what about this: "Drivers who choose to swap must reclaim their original battery on their return trip or pay the difference in cost for the new pack." That seems... inconvenient.

artursapek 13y ago
That answers the one question I had watching that video: does this mean we just freely circulate battery packs with varying amounts of usage?
- calinet6 13y ago
  Ideally the system would be extremely smart: not just freely circulating anything, but tracking the health of each and every battery, doing automated maintenance as much as possible, and circulating certain batteries out for refurb if they get too low. It should be like battery insurance: you'd just never have to worry about it, and there would be an extremely smart system ensuring the health of every Tesla battery on the road. "Should" being the key word here... but maybe that's the plan, hard to say.
  - rattray 13y ago
    Paying the difference between the two packs seems like it is that insurance, you just have to pay for it. Of course, we don't know what that difference is going to be so, so it's hard to say if it's a fair price at all...
calinet6 13y ago
Oooh... that's not good. I envisioned it as an insurance-like system: you pay for battery swaps, which cost X amount, which goes toward the collective maintenance of all the batteries in the whole system. Thus you don't have to worry about which battery is yours, or the health of your battery, or anything about the battery anymore. That simplicity alone makes it worth the price of admission. If they're worried about specific batteries and specific costs and specific maintenance tied to you, then I think they system has too many complex details to make it an easy snap decision. UX won't be as good, not as smooth, and it'll deter people from using the service... I think they need to go the collective route to make this work.
- Udo 13y ago
  That's how I saw it as well. The reality is certainly more disappointing. This would have been a great opportunity to simply take away what I think is the Tesla's most limiting factor: battery degradation.
crazcarl 13y ago
If you really have to reclaim YOUR battery when you come back, that means the swap place has to keep that battery in storage and ready to go (fully charged) for the next time you come back? And they can't re-rent it out.
loceng 13y ago
I imagine they must start out doing it like this until they test usage, etc.. Who knows how people could take advantage of it otherwise. It would prevent a possible initial problem of a ton of battery packs just building up in one location. They'd want the first users to to be regular users, and by keeping it to those who it works for, the service will be available faster + once again they won't need to build capacity to store a huge excess amount of of battery packs on location.
- GhotiFish 13y ago
  how can batteries build up in one location?
  - loceng 13y ago
    Assuming you're not getting someone elses' old battery pack - especially since the person is supposed to pick it up upon return.
  - loceng 13y ago
    Wait ... this is hurting my brain.
danielweber 13y ago
Ow. You should be leasing the battery pack from Tesla, and then you swap one pack you are leasing from Tesla with another pack you are leasing from Tesla, so there is no need to worry about what happens when you swap a $8000 battery with a $10,000 battery. (Are the Model S batteries even that cheap?)
- kalleboo 13y ago
  Some cursory googling says the cost is probably closer to $30,000. Current purchases can buy a $12,000 future option for a battery replacement in 8 years, so it seems like Tesla's predictions are that even with improvements for 8 years from now, a Tesla S battery will cost $12K+interest.

artursapek 13y ago

That answers the one question I had watching that video: does this mean we just freely circulate battery packs with varying amounts of usage?

calinet6 13y ago
Ideally the system would be extremely smart: not just freely circulating anything, but tracking the health of each and every battery, doing automated maintenance as much as possible, and circulating certain batteries out for refurb if they get too low. It should be like battery insurance: you'd just never have to worry about it, and there would be an extremely smart system ensuring the health of every Tesla battery on the road. "Should" being the key word here... but maybe that's the plan, hard to say.
- rattray 13y ago
  Paying the difference between the two packs seems like it is that insurance, you just have to pay for it. Of course, we don't know what that difference is going to be so, so it's hard to say if it's a fair price at all...

calinet6 13y ago

Oooh... that's not good. I envisioned it as an insurance-like system: you pay for battery swaps, which cost X amount, which goes toward the collective maintenance of all the batteries in the whole system. Thus you don't have to worry about which battery is yours, or the health of your battery, or anything about the battery anymore. That simplicity alone makes it worth the price of admission. If they're worried about specific batteries and specific costs and specific maintenance tied to you, then I think they system has too many complex details to make it an easy snap decision. UX won't be as good, not as smooth, and it'll deter people from using the service... I think they need to go the collective route to make this work.

Udo 13y ago
That's how I saw it as well. The reality is certainly more disappointing. This would have been a great opportunity to simply take away what I think is the Tesla's most limiting factor: battery degradation.

crazcarl 13y ago

If you really have to reclaim YOUR battery when you come back, that means the swap place has to keep that battery in storage and ready to go (fully charged) for the next time you come back? And they can't re-rent it out.

loceng 13y ago

I imagine they must start out doing it like this until they test usage, etc.. Who knows how people could take advantage of it otherwise. It would prevent a possible initial problem of a ton of battery packs just building up in one location. They'd want the first users to to be regular users, and by keeping it to those who it works for, the service will be available faster + once again they won't need to build capacity to store a huge excess amount of of battery packs on location.

GhotiFish 13y ago
how can batteries build up in one location?
- loceng 13y ago
  Assuming you're not getting someone elses' old battery pack - especially since the person is supposed to pick it up upon return.
- loceng 13y ago
  Wait ... this is hurting my brain.

danielweber 13y ago

Ow. You should be leasing the battery pack from Tesla, and then you swap one pack you are leasing from Tesla with another pack you are leasing from Tesla, so there is no need to worry about what happens when you swap a $8000 battery with a $10,000 battery. (Are the Model S batteries even that cheap?)

kalleboo 13y ago
Some cursory googling says the cost is probably closer to $30,000. Current purchases can buy a $12,000 future option for a battery replacement in 8 years, so it seems like Tesla's predictions are that even with improvements for 8 years from now, a Tesla S battery will cost $12K+interest.