Tesla Aims to Open Battery-Swap Centers This Year

Tesla Motors Inc. plans to begin opening facilities late this year that can swap a dead battery with a freshly charged one in its Model S electric sedan in 90 seconds.

A customer would pay $60-$80 per swap for the service, a speedier alternative to recharging the car's battery by more conventional means. Tesla say a Model S battery can be fully recharged in 3-5 hours with its onboard charger or in 45 minutes or less when using one of the company's free, direct-charge Supercharger stations.

Drivers who opt to swap batteries don't need to leave their vehicles to have the 1,000-lb battery replaced. Tesla says it will construct its first batch of stations along I-5 in California and between Boston and Washington, D.C.

Tesla CEO Elon Tusk says the company will spend about $500,000 per facility. He says drivers would pull in over a pit, in which a robot would remove the Model S's spent battery and plug in a fully charged new unit. Customers would have the option of coming back later to retrieve their original battery.