Tesla Motors has unveiled a robotic system capable of removing a depleted battery from the company's Model S electric car and replacing it with a new one in 90 seconds.
The company staged a demonstration of the technology on Thursday, June 20, near its Los Angeles offices. A traditional, gasoline-powered car was pitted against two Model S sedans. A new battery was installed in both of the Tesla vehicles in less time than it took to fill up the other car's gas tank.
Besides cost, charge times and driving ranges are among the biggest obstacles facing EV adoption in the US and Tesla hopes to address both these concerns by greatly expanding its Supercharger network, as well as offering customers options like battery swaps.
"The only decision you need to make when you come to one of our Tesla stations is, do you prefer faster or free," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said. "Our goal here was to eliminate the objections that people have. We want to show that [Tesla] can actually be more convenient than a gasoline car. Hopefully this is what convinces people that electric cars are the future."
The cost of the battery swap service will vary. Musk said the price would be tied to local gasoline rates and equivalent to about 15 gallons of fuel. Charging up a Model S at a Tesla station will continue to be free.
"We need to address the objection to buying electric cars. We'll be less profitable, or something like that, but we're going to do it," Musk said.
The robot that actually handles the battery swap costs $500,000 and Tesla intends to deploy them to Supercharger stations across the country. It's a fairly bold move for the carmaker, particularly after the recent bankruptcy of Better Place, an Israeli company that attempted to pioneer a similar technology with little success.
