Tesla reveals battery swap plan for its high-end electric cars

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Joseph C. Cassini drives his 1934 Packard 1108 Twelve Dietrich Convertible Victoria onto the winners platform after being awarded the Best of Show award at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Ben Rehm, 20, of Carmel photographs a 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Murphy Convertible Saloon at the Concours d’Elegance on Sunday. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Mitzy from Salinas takes a moment to rest in the shade of a 1955 Lincoln Indianapolis Boano coupe. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A Duesenberg with a tool kit mounted inside the driver’s door is displayed at the Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Photographer Phillippe Carre takes a picture of a vintage Alfa Romeo. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Julia Binke, 6, walks in front of a 1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost at the Concours d’Elegance on Sunday. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Sporting racing-flag toenail polish, Lori TenEyck of Colorado was one of nearly 10,000 people enjoying the display of about 200 collector cars at the Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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One of the nearly 200 collector cars greets the dawn as it rolls onto the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Chewing on his cigar, Rick Rawlins drives a 1908 Prince Henry Benz, owned by Ann Bothwell but originally owned by race car driver Barney Oldfield, as nearly 200 collector cars greet the dawn as they roll onto the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach to begin the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Spectators line up to see the nearly 200 collector cars at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A rumble-seat passenger in a 1933 V-12 Packard at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Wearing a variety of hats, contestants ride in their Rolls Royce. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Adele Tanaka, left, and Jo Yuan capture the moment as the first of nearly 200 collector cars greets the day to begin the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A 1957 Ferrari 250 GT 14-Louver Berlinetta is on display at the Gooding & Co. auction as part of the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A prospective buyer looks down a line of cars up for auction at the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A Shelby 289 Cobra Competition Roadster from 1964 is reflected in the fender skirt of a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante at the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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At the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach, a 1925 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix is on display. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A 1935 Avions Voisin C25 Aerodyne, featuring an early version of a sun roof, is on display at the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Sports Car magazine photographer Dave Tomaro photographs prospective buyers as they spend the afternoon ogling vintage and rare automobiles on display at the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A Bentley radiator ornament at the Gooding & Company auction tent at the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A man uses a camera to get a closer look at the undercarriage of a 1956 Porsche 356 A 1500 GS Carrera Coupe. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Expensive cars are lined up at the Concours d’Elegance weekend at Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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A racing rim signed by Carroll Shelby, the father of the Cobra, in Lynn Park’s garage. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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“If one’s good, two’s got to be better,” Park said of the cars, chuckling. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Park stands beside the second Cobra he ever bought. One of his sons is going to race in it. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Park checks the hoses of a Cobra he will take to Pebble Beach. This particular car is worth about $2 million. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Park opens the garage door in front of one of the Cobras he plans to take to Pebble Beach. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Lynn Park with his garage full of Cobra cars. Known in classic car circles as Mr. Cobra, Park has been collecting the marque since he bought his first after getting out of the Army in 1969. The first purchase got him hooked. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Lynn Park keeps his Cobras in his garage in La Cañada Flintridge. He and his sons plan to race race three of them at the Pebble Beach, Calif., event. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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“You can’t have any more fun than playing with old cars,” Park said of vintage racing. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Lynn Park drives one of his vintage Shelby Cobras around his neighborhood in La Cañada Flintridge. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

By Catherine Green

June 21, 2013 8:13 AM PT

Tesla Motors, Inc., unveiled plans Thursday night to offer a service that would swap out depleted batteries in its luxury electric cars for fully charged packs.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk took the stage inside the carmaker’s design studio in Hawthorne to show off Tesla’s latest effort to make the brand’s Model S sedan a little more consumer-friendly.

A cheeky video displayed behind Musk featured a split-screen. On the left, a man went through the motions of a typical gas fill-up. On the right, a Tesla electric vehicle drove over a pit, from which its battery packs -- located in the car’s floor -- can be accessed. A timer hovered above the two sides: The battery swap took 1 minute 33 seconds, while the fill-up lasted 4:09.

The battery-swap pits will share stations with the free, 30-minute Supercharger systems Tesla debuted last October, so drivers can choose between “fast or free” -- Musk’s tag line for the evening.

PHOTOS: The Tesla Model S

Those who opt for “fast” will pay for a fully charged battery when they pull into a station to swap. Musk said the cost would be the equivalent of 15 gallons of gas in the surrounding region.

In practice, say a driver on a road trip pulls into a station, swaps out their battery for that gas-equivalent cost, and continues on their way. When they pull through the same station on the return trip, they will be able to either get the same battery they switched out -- now fully recharged -- or have an entirely new battery put in. They will have to pay again for the swap, and pay any difference between the value of their battery and the new one. Drivers who have the time can recharge their battery

In theory, the swap solves a major hurdle for marketing electric vehicles: range anxiety. Drivers won’t be quite as restricted in the number of miles between charges. Tesla models equipped with 85-kWh (kilowatt hours) batteries can drive an estimated 265 miles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, while those carrying 60-kWh batteries go about 208 miles. And the nuisance of waiting 30 minutes or more for a recharge will disappear for drivers who take advantage of the battery swap.

“We need to address the reasons people aren’t buying electric cars,” Musk said after the demonstration. “People need to feel they have the same level of freedom that they have with gasoline cars.”

PHOTOS: Electric cars

This isn’t the first time the electric vehicle market has embraced battery swapping. Electric car services provider Better Place, Inc., premiered the method during a demonstration in Japan back in 2009. The technology didn’t catch on.

Automakers refused to make swap-compatible cars, and the company couldn’t keep costs low enough for consumers. Better Place filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, having lost $459 million and racked up a mere $6.9 million in sales for all of 2012.

Musk acknowledged the battery swap was not a novel idea. “Your average toy is capable of doing this,” he joked.

Of Better Place’s missteps, he said: “They were better at marketing than they were at engineering.”

Jack Nerad, an analyst at auto information company Kelley Blue Book, still had some concerns when news broke earlier of Tesla’s plans. Nerad pointed out every car would have to be designed around the same size and configuration of battery pack, which would be “problematic for hotly competitive car manufacturers” and an obstacle for future innovation.

Further, Nerad said, the cost of installing battery-swap stations may limit their convenience. “It requires a substantial investment in facilities if the battery-replacement centers are to be situated in convenient locations,” he said.

Tesla’s battery swap stations will cost about $500,000 each to build. Musk said the automaker planned to start with the busiest regional traffic corridors, including Los Angeles to San Francisco and Boston to New York.

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Twitter: @c_s_green

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