Reading the pro-tesla seeking alpha site I ran into a very good article summarizing the 5 part trilogy of good news being fed to us from tesla s PR team via Elon Musk.
1) profitable q1
2) leasing model s
3) bullet-proof battery guarantee and support extra mile stuff
4) (speculation) supercharger network coast to coast in the US
5) (speculation) battery swapping!
This last one is a radical point as the cost of a swap station is huge (Better Place invested 1M for each of theirs), however the article points out:
Quote
Page 38 of Tesla’s most recent 10Q filed on May 10th, 2013. Newly added to the risk factors is this bullet;
«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»
End quote
They are clearly thinking about it. If they do this it is seriously big…. The majority of humanity lives in cities and the majority of car owners do not have a private garage. Battery swapping is just about the best way to solve the recharging problem for these people in my opinion.