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Comment by mft_ | Hacker News Reader

Exactly. The text you quote is PR-messaging to cover up the major downside that these aren't rechargeable - they have to be swapped out. So they're not really a competitor for Lithium rechargeables; they're a competitor for Duracell gold-tops.

(Interestingly, I recall that Tesla originally planned to offer battwry-swap stations, and even demonstrated over. Not sure why they dropped the plan - presume either logistics, or they developed their battery technology to allow charging more quickly than they'd originally thought possible?)

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> It's long been assumed that Tesla opened its sole experimental swapping station solely to fulfill the promise that caused the powerful California Air Resources Board (CARB) to grant the Model S extra zero-emission vehicle credits for "fast refueling" capability.

> That translates to providing the car's full range in 10 minutes or less--which gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and hydrogen fuel-cell cars can achieve, but even a Supercharging Tesla cannot.

https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2015/0312/Tesla-b...

> these aren't rechargeable

The only use I could imagine for these would be for a trucking company that wouldn't mind swapping and recycling the packs to keep their trucks going continuously.

For folks who have adapted to EV cars, never having to go somewhere to fill up (or swap) would be hard to give up. And rechargable packs will get better.

EDIT: ok... what about racers? Current EV racing is limited by the batteries. A lightweight aluminum pack that can be swapped when they change tires might make EV racing interesting. That assumes the power output from these packs isn't fundamentally limited in some way.

two issues, super chargers were more than quick enough even when this technology was introduced. the second was that they had such little uptake it wasn't worth trying at more than the first site.

the unwritten concern was, who owns which pack? is the new pack I swap going to swap back to me or equivalent?

> is the new pack I swap going to swap back to me or equivalent?

the packs are not rechargable, you would be buying a new battery and getting paid to recycle your old battery.

Shivetya was talking about Telsa battery packs, which are rechargeable.

Convenience stores in Seoul used to (maybe they still do?) swap battery packs for Android phones for a small fee. My phone's battery time cut in half after the first time I did it. I would have been much more concerned if it was my car.

There was an Israeli company trying to do this.

Telsas now seem to be built around the battery pack, which is now a large flat heavy sled. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all to do with the practicality of low center of gravity, structural integrity, safety that such a configuration provides.

I believe it was called a Better Place, from what I recall Renault was big on it, as was the Danish government.

I wondered about this since you don't own the battery people won't be taking due care of it, it would be very capital intensive to have the battery replacement stations though.

I got the gist right:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)

The Model S and X were designed so that the battery can be swapped from below, and Tesla ran one station for several years where you could get this done. That station closed sometime in or around 2016 and they haven't talked about it since. The Model 3 and presumably future cars do not support battery swapping.

The one battery swap station was never really 'open' so much as trialled. It was a closed invite-only program, you had to book an appointment, and then come back and collect your original battery at a later date.

Saying they ran it for years is a reach, since it doesn't seem to have opened even for pilot programs until sometime in mid/late 2015[1], and was already seemingly closed in May of 2016[0].

It didn't work anywhere near as slick as in their stage demo suggested. Taking up to 15 minutes for a pack swap the first time, and 5 minutes thereafter.

There's suggestions that it was, at least in part, a tactic to get a greater share of credits[1] which Tesla sells to other car manufacturers[2].

Whether it was intended to be a real program or not is unclear, but they did give up on it pretty quickly in favour of a greater deployment of their Supercharging program.

[0] https://electrek.co/2016/05/10/tesla-battery-swap-program-su...

[1] https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096570_about-that-one-...

[2] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/tesla-sold-carbon-emissio...

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