As battery mileage efficiency for electric vehicles is still in huge debate, and controversy is still ongoing, Tesla Motors came up with an great idea to please it’s buyers.
They have developed the all-electric 2012 Tesla Model S sedan version so that the battery pack can be switches as fast as you would fill up a regular car with gas at a gas station.
The actual outgoing director of Tesla Motors, Michael Donoughe, said that the lithium-ion pack can easily be changed in no more than 5 minutes: “When you install the battery pack for vehicle assembly and when you’re running at line speed, you have to do it in a fairly quick fashion, so you design for manufacturing and assembly, and as long as you’re designing for manufacturing and assembly you can also design for manufacturing, assembly and swap. That’s basically what we’re looking to do.”
Tesla Model S comes with one of the three battery pack options, for ranges of 165, 235 and 300 miles. The idea is not for owners to swap the batteries but to be replaced at a future infrastructure where this could be possible.
Unfortunately one of the factors why electric cars are not in mass production is the autonomy. And there is still a long way to go in this direction. Let’s hope it’s not too long.
Tesla, IMHO, is one of the smartest companies in existence. If all the bailout money that went to the big three (who’s dinosauric business practices were partly to blame for the crisis anyway) went to Tesla, the infrastructure problem would have been solved already.
Instead, we have more of the status quo, clinging to the edifice of a dead model. It goes to show that politicians are too stupid for us to leave our fate in their hands.