All they had to do was go on stage and “swap” a battery without any clear video of the process and never “demonstrate” it ever again.
This is a company known for faking prominent demos like the FSD demo (where it crashed into a wall during filming), the solar roof demo (where they used regular roof tiles and claimed they were solar panels), the optimus demo (where they were teleoperated), etc.
Assuming they even did a battery swap, for which the official demo presents no clear video evidence, preferring overhead views over a close-up of the process or a glass enclosure to see the inner workings, it was at best a one-off custom-made device at the time. The one battery-swap station they claim existed has zero stories of any actual battery swaps, instead only evidence of it operating as a regular Supercharger [2].
[1] https://thewaroncars.org/episode-88-tesla-is-a-fraud-with-ed...
[2] https://slate.com/technology/2022/05/elon-musk-tesla-twitter...
Tesla did briefly operate a swap station at the site of the Harris Ranch Supercharger until California changed the rules.
There are several reports from people who used it on teslamotorsclub.com, and I saw it with my own eyes.
Hilarious that your source is Ed Neidermeyer. Perhaps the only thing more impressive than Elon’s lies about the state of self driving are Ed’s lies about how Tesla is going bankrupt Any Day Now.
It’s ok though, Ed’s stock manipulation antics enabled me to stuff my IRA with Tesla shares (since sold, when Elon went nuts) and make a nice little headway on my retirement savings.
I don't understand the comment. Of course they know where the batteries come from. They know everything about the battery.
As long as the average battery health in the system is like 90% and the minimum is say 80% why would you care if you're getting a new battery every few days?
If anything it removes a big cause of depreciation from your car
In some mysterious future where swapping EV batteries during a road trip is a normal activity, then the battery packs won't be living in a vacuum -- their status can be known. Whether it is known by reading the pack's own electronics, by status reports from connected vehicles and charging stations, by direct measurement, or by some combination of these things: The status is knowable. It doesn't have to be a big ball of mystery.
How much value the marketplace finds in this health status is a different question. And this question is one that we cannot yet know the answer to -- this is not a reality that we presently live in.
We can speculate about how that potential future may be shaped, but that kind of speculation is kind of meritless since that version of the future may never actually happen (and at the present, it sure does seem very unlikely to happen any time soon).
~~Two~~ Three things:
1. California changed the rules shortly after Tesla demonstrated their swap station, which practically eliminated the tax credit for battery swap (at the behest of lobbyists for Toyota, who were backing Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology). Specifically, the credit would be prorated by the percent of “fast refueling” sessions a car did, so EVs primarily charged at home received almost nothing while HFCV got the full credit. Building swap capability adds complexity to the car (think about all the fluid connections), which isn’t worth it without credits.
2. It was also around this time that a Model S ran over an anvil (or something) which punctured the pack and started a fire. In response, Tesla added an aluminum battery shield, which further complexifies swapping and was probably the final nail in the coffin.
3. The logistics of storing your very expensive battery (so you could get it back later) basically make the system unworkable. When the Tesla swap station at Harris Ranch (you can still see the former building, next to Harris BBQ, which currently houses the restrooms) was operational, you had to make a reservation some hours in advance so that Tesla could have a pack ready and be ready to take your pack to/from storage.
3a. Gresham’s Law. Without eventually returning the pack to the original owner, there is an adverse selection problem: people with very weak packs will gladly roll the dice on a swap, but those with brand new packs are reluctant. So the average quality of packs in the swap network will quickly decline creating a death spiral.
3b. You could probably fix 3a by leasing the battery (or selling battery-as-a-service) but car buyers mostly don’t like that, especially back in 2013.
Even if the swap station got to where it was hoped (no reservation needed, automated, drive in, swap, drive out), you'd have a choice between a ~5 minute stop at a swap station, or a ~10-20 minute stop at a charging station. The swap station is always going to be more expensive since it's inherently more complicated, so you're spending more to save a few minutes. And when you stop at the swap station you can go answer the call of nature and grab a snack while you wait. If you want to do either of those anyway, then visiting the swap station means you'll do the swap, then go do those other things, and probably not save any time at all.
Charging time just isn't that much of an issue at this point. I've been driving a Tesla for a decade at this point, with thousands of miles of road trips around the eastern US, and I've never found myself wishing for battery swap infrastructure. Newer cars charge much faster than mine does, too.
> they are doing that in China
Are they actually doing that at scale?
> As of June 2024, Nio had installed 2,432 power swap stations in China, including 804 along highways, representing the largest battery swapping network in the country. Nio aims to expand to 4,000 stations globally by 2025. By February 2025, Nio had 3,106 battery swap stations in China, with 964 located along highways. In January 2025 alone, Nio added 111 swap stations and provided 2,949,969 battery swap services, averaging 95,160 daily.
https://enertherm-engineering.com/chinas-battery-swap-revolu...
This is pretty much just a "gamble by deploying as quickly as possible making our system the standard if it catches on" type of investment.
