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- 27 Jun
Tesla unveils more progress on the electric vehicle recharging front
One of the biggest concerns of potential buyers of the electric vehicle is the inconvenience of refueling. Electric vehicle charging stations on the road today require an hour or so for a “top-off” recharge.
In their effort to move the electric vehicle recharging experience toward something consumers are more used to when refueling at a convenience store, Tesla is rolling out a network of Super Charger stations that can recharge their Super S vehicle 50% in 30 minutes. What’s even more compelling is that the refueling is free indefinitely for Tesla owners.
But Tesla this week has taken the refueling experience even further by announcing the availability of a 90 second battery swap alternative. The concept here is that the consumer can pay approximately $50 to have an assembly line type machine unscrew bolts that hold the current battery in place, remove the battery, drop in a replacement battery, and tighten the bolts to factory specifications. Not only is this less time than a traditional fill-up, but in many parts of the country it costs less than the current price of a fill-up.
There is one significant downside, however. Drivers who take the replacement battery will eventually have to return to the charging station to get their battery back, where they’ll have to pay for the replacement process again. So in that scenario, the battery swap costs twice what it originally seems. The other options are for the driver to pay for their battery to be shipped to their local service center, or to keep the replacement battery which may not have the same efficiency as their original.
So while barriers to entry still exist for the electric vehicle market, there is no doubt that the gap in convenience between traditional fuel fill-ups and electric charging fill-ups is closing.
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