Tesla's long-promised battery-swap technology, making charging up as quick as filling your gas tank, is finally here. The company announced today that the first swapping station will open next week for public testing—offering a three-minute swap to a fully-charged battery for a few Tesla drivers.
Ahead of today's official announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to tease the development.
Pack swap now operating in limited beta mode for SF to LA route. Can swap battery faster than visiting a gas station. Tesla blog out soon.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2014
The first battery-swapping test facility is located in Harris Ranch, California, adjacent to a Supercharger station and about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Beginning next week, invited Model S owners will get the chance to try the battery-swap system.
Tesla says the battery swapping process takes approximately three minutes, noting that "time is needed to remove the titanium and hardened aluminum ballistic plates that now shield the battery pack." The company says that swap time "could be reduced to less than one minute, even with shields," given further automation to the swapping process and refinements to the design of the vehicle undercarriage.
As Tesla is happy to point out, that's comparable to the time you spend filling up your current gas or diesel-powered vehicle. Below is a video of what the process looked like when Tesla first announced the battery-swap project back in June of 2013, and you can read more about how it works right here.
Unlike the Supercharger station network, which allows Tesla owners to charge up for free, the battery-swap process will cost drivers "slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan," Tesla says. "This technology allows Model S owners in need of a battery charge the choice of either fast or free."
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Right now, Tesla characterizes the pilot battery-swap location as a place to test the technology and assess demand. Given that hours-long charging times are one of the biggest criticisms levied against electric vehicles, we think it's a given that Tesla hopes to build a network of battery-swap facilities that rivals the size of its 1748 Supercharger stations worldwide.
This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com.
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