Late last month, Tesla announced plans to test a new battery swap program for its Model S sedans. The pilot program will initially be tested at a station across the street from Tesla’s Superchargers at Harris Ranch, California off Interstate 5. The station became operational at the end of December
Tesla has said that the pilot program aims to test technology as well as assess demand for these types of stations. At this time, the battery swap pilot program will be available by appointment only and will cost just a little less than a full tank of gas for a premium sedan. Because more time is required to remove the titanium and hardened aluminum ballistic plates that shield the battery pack, Tesla estimates it will take less than 3 minutes to change out the car’s battery. This represents much less time than the typical 20 to 30 minutes it usually takes to charge the Supercharger.
However, as the company notes in a recent blog post, “With further automation and refinements on the vehicle side, we are confident that the swap time could be reduced to less than one minute, even with shields.”
Today, Tesla’s Supercharger network encompasses more than 1,748 Superchargers at 312 stations worldwide. These chargers allow Model S drivers to charge at 400 miles per hour. In a presentation last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted that the company’s Supercharger network “is and always will be free,” right before demonstrating that changing out a battery in a Model S could take less time than filling up an Audi’s gas tank.
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