One of the reasons cited by the detractors of electric cars is that it is unfit for long drives since it takes up to an hour to recharge the battery at the Supercharging stations, before you can be back on the road. Tesla is trying to cut this time down to around 15 minutes by replacing the battery in the car at charging stations. Tesla has filed a patent for a new battery swapping robot, according to an Inc42 report.
The newly envisaged mechanism will have the car lifted to a certain height and either using an automated system or through a human intervention, the battery will be removed from its housing and the charged battery fixed in its place.
Depending on the size and type of the battery, you can continue driving your car for the next full quota of distance. According to Tesla, this whole exercise will last only 15 minutes or less.
The company may further tweak this contraption to facilitate a drive in/out option within this to make it even more efficient and user-friendly. Cases of malfunctioning batteries can also be dealt with in the same manner.
To begin with, the facility may be tested on Tesla’s Model S and Model X vehicles before making it universal. The company is working on expanding its Supercharging stations network also rapidly.
Tesla is also keen on focused on making its launch, next month, of Tesla Semi, which is an electric powered truck. To effectively compete with the conventional trucks that can run 1000kms non-stop with a fuel-tank top-up, this battery-swapping technique could be very useful.