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Battery Swap [video]

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Re: Battery Swap [video]

#71

Post by jim-greer »

mfenniak wrote: post #64
calinet6 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the key reason you'd want to do this in the first place. It not only solves the problem of quickly charging the battery, it solves the problem of battery quality over time! The mere fact that you have batteries being swapped in and out of cars means you can systematically track battery health and refurbish batteries that are getting low, without ever having to bother the customer or affect the driveability of…

According to this article ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-tesla-swap-idUS... ): A battery pack swap will cost between $60 and $80, about the same as filling up a 15-gallon gas tank, Musk said. Drivers who choose to swap must reclaim their original battery on their return trip or pay the difference in cost for the new pack. So, I think they're not quite tackling the battery quality problem like you're s…

Maybe once more people are doing it they'll switch to that system? Initially when few are doing it in a few places, there's incentive to just get a better battery and keep it.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#72

Post by calinet6 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #44

I saw it and wondered "what about dirt"? Dust, gravel, spilled oil, the stray coke can. Rain (yes it does sometimes rain in California). This is a fine stage demo, but really? We're talking enormous sealed electric bombs, swapped out by automated wrench and jack platforms, then a subterranean battery-storage-and-recharge system. The bigger technology than 'doing it at all' is 'keeping it working under environmental c…

Please, you think they haven't thought of those problems? I'm sure it's a sealed system designed for real-world use. Otherwise why would they even create it?

You could say the same about the car itself, but that appears to work just fine in the elements.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#73

Post by joeblau »

I never actually realized how much time it took to fill up a tank of gas! The next step is to get this working via a Knight Rider style truck so you never even have to stop moving.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#74

Post by leoc »

brianbreslin wrote: post #56
leoc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's probably most relevant is that it would take roughly as long to half -fill the Audi as to replace the Tesla's battery. That's in many ways a fairer comparison, as the Model S has roughly half the driving range of an Audi, and (I think) most car gasoline fill-ups aren't from near-empty back to full.

The model he fills up looks to be an A8. The A8 fuel economy is around 15-18MPG. So 20 gallon tank only gets 350 mile range on it.

Ok. That's a very guzzly car then, though; even other Audis like the A5 seem to do a lot better than that, especially on the highway.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#75

Post by calinet6 »

m_mueller wrote: post #69
mfenniak wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to this article ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-tesla-swap-idUS... ): A battery pack swap will cost between $60 and $80, about the same as filling up a 15-gallon gas tank, Musk said. Drivers who choose to swap must reclaim their original battery on their return trip or pay the difference in cost for the new pack. So, I think they're not quite tackling the battery quality problem like you're s…

My guess is the cost structure of such an infrastructure is at first prohibitive to offer a complete swap at 60-80$. Once the market is big enough they might be able to switch to the model suggested abovr.

Agreed, it makes sense at small scale to make it an individual system. Once the system grows, it'll be easier to spread the cost over more users. It's like insurance.

I hope that's where they're going, because it's the crux of the concept to me.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#76

Post by prawks »

nicolasp wrote: post #55
prawks wrote: post #52

Better Place has been trying to do the same in Israel and Denmark, and is looking to expand into the US eventually: http://www.wbur.org/npr/159355676/dont-charge-that-electric-...

Better Place actually filed for bankruptcy about a month ago: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/anothe...

Oops, somehow I missed that. Thanks.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#77

Post by rattray »

calinet6 wrote: post #70
artursapek wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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 o…

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...

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#78

Post by chiph »

Instead of the requirement for the owners to return & pick up their battery, why not charge $750 yearly for the privilege of swap and forget? If you swap, it's the luck of the draw whether you get a brand-new battery or a used one. But Tesla could use that money to cycle in new batteries to the pool, so your chances of getting a brand-new battery remain decent.

Re: Battery Swap [video]

#79

Post by rattray »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #44

I saw it and wondered "what about dirt"? Dust, gravel, spilled oil, the stray coke can. Rain (yes it does sometimes rain in California). This is a fine stage demo, but really? We're talking enormous sealed electric bombs, swapped out by automated wrench and jack platforms, then a subterranean battery-storage-and-recharge system. The bigger technology than 'doing it at all' is 'keeping it working under environmental c…

It's probably reasons like those -- and other challenges, like actual installation -- that are keeping them back from announcing these stations as being available rather than just planned for an unknown point in the future, which is all we learned today.
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