Tesla Battery Swap

free may be a good way to help sell cars, but if and when a car sells itself, people won't mind paying for convenience. by the recharging may be much shorter though. i just thought battery swap stations like the guy in israel wanted, would help break down the barrier.

 

Batteries are one of the most expensive things, if not the most, on a BEV. For battery swapping to work, the station would need to keep several of those expensive things on hand; plugged in to minders to keep them topped off. With a low level of customers, it is a large capital investment.

I think enough people have gotten bad batteries out of the box, or had replace the lap top one within a couple years, or had a starter battery fail them, that they would be hesitant to take a traction battery for a BEV that hasn't been in their possession since new. You just got a brand new BEV, would you want to exchange that new battery for one that might have several thousands of more miles on it, just to avoid waiting for a charge?

Enough people were hesitant enough that the Israel company went under.

 

as long as tesla is backing it up, why not? but we've had this discussion, posts #4 - #12.

 

But now the conversation has made a full circle. The "why not?" was asked and answered by Tesla...The owners were uninterested. Period. Whether they should be interested or incentivized is an extremely different question. This was not a survey, but a real offer by Tesla and was answered quite clearly...No, they would rather make use of the (free) supercharger.

 

true, but the owners aren't the people we're trying to move to alternative fuel vehicles.

 

I don't think the potential of battery swapping got Tesla any new sales.

While mismanagement may have done Better Place in, the company only sold a thousand cars in Israel. Tax credits, rebates, and HOV access seem to have done a better job of getting people into plug ins. The battery lease route for reducing the initial price of the cars, hasn't been a big success at moving people to the cars either.

Better Place - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

i'm not claiming to be right, i just think it's a good idea. who's time hasn't come.