Tesla battery station
That month, Tesla announced a pilot battery-swap program would be implemented at a single California site to gauge demand.
[7] In an interview published in 2009, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that automated battery swapping would be the standard method of recharging its vehicles.
[11] Tesla filed a Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2013, which included several factors that influenced the adoption of its vehicles stating "our capability to rapidly swap out the Model S battery pack and the development of specialized public facilities to perform such swapping, which do not currently exist but which we plan to introduce in the near future".
Owners also would have the option to swap back to their own battery pack, fully charged, on the return trip for no extra payment.
The Harris Ranch swapping station was used for "assess demand" for the paid service, offered only to invited Model S owners by appointment.
The company stated they would "evaluate relative demand from customers ... to assess whether it merits the engineering resources and investment necessary" for the upgrade of additional first-generation Supercharger stations.
The company later indicated that battery swapping capabilities was no longer a significant part of Tesla's plans for on-road energy replacement for their vehicles.
[7] Musk noted that Supercharger technology had advanced sufficiently and claimed "people don't care about pack swap" at the 2015 annual shareholder meeting.
[28][29] The language of the ZEV regulation allowed CARB to credit a vehicle with fast replenishment capabilities through a technology demonstration, such as the June 2013 event, regardless of whether that capability was in widespread use, which was perceived as a loophole; Niedermeyer said "it's no surprise that Tesla engineered the Model S to be swap-capable" to earn the extra credits.
[30]: 9–10 Starting with the 2015 model year, the ZEV regulation was updated so that fast-replenishment capability was based on "actual fast refueling events", rather than merely demonstrating the potential to do so.
[32] In March 2015, an article was published in the Los Angeles Times questioning whether the Harris Ranch battery swapping station was meant to increase the number of regulatory credits per vehicle.
