Re:Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway
by chc on Friday February 08, 2013 @09:39PM
(#5191334)
The battery for the Model S is the entire base of the car. It's over seven feet long, weighs more than half a ton and costs about $12,000 to make. I'm sure they would have loved if it could have been swappable, but getting there from the current technology would mean a lot of compromise that would almost certainly not be worth it.
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Re:Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway
by CamperBob2 on Friday February 08, 2013 @09:50PM
(#5191377)
Apparently -- see other comments in this thread, and the ones that were made the last time this came up in another HN story -- the Model S battery is designed as a module for rapid replacement.
Of course, without an industry-wide effort to standardize a few core battery sizes for different applications, it's a moot point. That is the problem that I wish Musk had set out to solve.
AFAIK it's designed to be replaceable without major surgery, but I don't think the replacement is meant to be quite as rapid as "stop at a gas station and they'll pop a new one in." I'm not an expert, but that was my impression.