Tesla Motors showcased an advancement to their electric Model S sedan at their Hawthorne California design studio on Thursday. The company's chief executive Elon Musk demonstrated how a robot could swap out a depleted battery in the car and replace it with a fully charged one in about 90 seconds. That's about half the time it takes to fill a traditional car with gasoline.
"Our objective here is to remove the obstacles people have to electric cars," Musk told the crowd of supporters who watched his demonstration as the new robotic system swapped out the batteries of two cars in the time it took a man in a video to fill the tank of a Audi at a gas pump. "Some people take a lot of convincing. Hopefully this is what convinces people finally that electric cars are the future."
Not to be outdone, Nissan made a similar debut earlier that day. Nissan North America announced its own battery replacement program for the plug-in Leaf. Whether or not Nissan was directly trying to steal, or at least piggy back, off Tesla's announcement, at the end of the day, both auto makers simply wanted to take steps forward in making electric cars viable options for all consumers in the near future.
Tesla will be charging $60 to $80 for the battery pack swap, about the same price as 15 gallons of gas, according to Forbes. The service will reportedly be available at all of Tesla's new super-charging stations in California starting later this year. The company will then set its sights on expanding to the Northeast and other markets soon after. The superchargers will continue to be free. If people want to keep their original battery, which will cost another $60. If people want to keep the new one, Tesla will simply bill them for it.
Nissan's replacement model is a little different. It offers an option for consumers to lease their battery as a separate purchase from their car. Once people make the swap they will be charged $100 a month for a replacement if the new batter doesn't maintain at least 70 percent capacity.
