No Need to Charge, Tesla Pilots Battery Swap

Tesla Motors, the electric car company led by Elon Musk, is looking to shorten the charging time of their Model S Sedan. The way they will reportedly accomplish this is not to charge their vehicles, but to simply swap out a drained battery for a full one. In a December 19th blog post on the Tesla Motors website reads, “Starting next week, we will pilot a pack swap program with invited Model S owners. They will be given the opportunity to swap their car’s battery at a custom-built facility located across the street from the Tesla Superchargers at Harris Ranch, CA.”

This battery swap concept isn’t new. Elon Musk, in his typical fashion, staged an event in June of 2013 in which his company demonstrated the battery pack swap. With Musk at the mic, the contrast between swapping out a drained battery for a charged one and filling up the gas tank in an Audi sedan was demonstrated. A synchronized video showing a man filling up the tank of the German sedan was shown on a big screen while the professional Tesla team swapped out the battery in the Model S.

This concept, while much faster, won’t be free. Musk explained that Model S drivers would have two options, fast and free. Free in this case is using a Tesla supercharger. The cost of the battery swap was undisclosed, but is reportedly around the cost of a full tank of premium gas in California.

If this battery swap pilot is a success it means Tesla will likely need more batteries. If Tesla needs more batteries it means that they need their Gigafactory to succeed. Tesla has wagered their future on their Nevada Gigafactory. The facility will supposedly lower the price of their Model III Sedan down to $35,000 after the tax credit. However, if the Gigafactory for whatever reason fails to meet expectations, Tesla could have a serious concern on their hands. Thus, the battery swap program will expand and find success only as the Gigafactory works out. Do you think that Tesla will continue to rise or run into issues with the Gigafactory? Do you think that they will eventually sell using the dealership franchise model?