Gen III incompatible with battery swapping stations?

[Ruscle]

Drive-In Swapping Stations is a novel idea and many years away. Network expansion will reduce the need to swap while allowing increased battery degradation before a new battery is required. TMS5043 45k miles.

 

[Red Sage]

What's the advantage over Supercharging which will continue to improve? Other than time.

The disadvantages are that it costs more and after the swap you have a battery that isn't the one you bought.

One potential advantage is capacity and thereby increased range. If Tesla Motors were to stock the Battery Swap locations with only the highest capacity versions of battery packs, you would be able to temporarily 'trade up' to higher range when driving cross-country. So if a battery pack with 120, 135, 150 or 170 kWh is available, someone whose car came with a 60 or 85 kWh battery pack could only use the swapped, rented, borrowed higher capacity to minimize the need for Supercharger stops. Similarly, if they know their route will be mostly off the Supercharger highway, you could diminish any range anxiety in those areas significantly.

My guess is that you would probably have up to two weeks to return the battery pack for your original, before being charged another fee. But rather than having to arrange to have a battery pack waiting for you, or effectively 'paying at the pump' with a credit card, it would be nice if the service could be prepaid. That way you might pay $500 up front for ten battery swaps over three years. The automated system would either read your VIN, or communicate with your car via WiFi to confirm it was authorized for the service. This would be a great way for people who can only afford a 60 kWh battery to take advantage of both Supercharging and long distance travel with ease.

I'm pretty sure that it was mentioned somewhere that you would always get your original battery pack back. It would not be given to anyone else. It would be stored at the battery swap location awaiting your arrival. Or, if you were making a permanent, one-way trip, you would pay Tesla to forward it to a Service Center near your new address. Or, you would simply pay the difference in residual value if you prefer the battery pack you got during the swap, effectively trading in your old one.

It's all about having options.

 

[igotzzoom]

Certainly, the battery swap concept demonstration shows the potential. I think the more likely long-term use of it will be to replace older packs that have exhausted their vehicle service life, and swap in newer/fresher packs.

 

[Pilot_51]

I think the only significant use case for battery swapping is for services like taxis where the packs would remain in possession of the owner and the speed translates to profit. For public swapping, the issue of pack quality and ownership gets kind of complicated and I think very few people would find value in it.