2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Awd 4dr Sedan on 2040-cars

Auto blog

New pictures of Tesla's not-yet-open battery swap station

Katie Fehrenbacher from GigaOm drove down to the Tesla's first battery-swap station in Coalinga, CA to check on its progress. Tesla had said in a blog post that it would start an invite-only pilot pack swap program last month; it doesn't appear that it's begun yet, but based on the almost-finished state of the not-yet-open swapping station, it could start up quite soon. Sited across the street from the Supercharger station at Harris Ranch, the $500,000 swapping lean-to appeared to Fehrenbacher to be a repurposed car wash. It's got signage for its new use, the restrooms are in order, and the mechanicals for changing out batteries have been installed in a bay large enough for one car at a time. This is the 'fee' part of the "Fee or Free" options for recharging a Tesla. Drivers with a bit of time can 'refill' at the supercharger station for free. Those who don't want to stop for more than three minutes - the time it's expected to take to change out the battery - will pay around $50 to $60 for a loaner battery so they can continue their trip. On their return trip, they will return to the swap station and return the loaner pack for their original one; it's said they can also pay to have their battery shipped to them - which seems odd - or pay the difference between the usage of their battery and the loaner. There have been a few articles written about how the battery stations can restore a revenue stream for Tesla, selling ZEV credits to other manufacturers. After CARB rules switched to provide maximum credits only to vehicles that could "accumulate at least 190 or 285 miles, respectively, in 15 minutes or less" - which the superchargers can't do - Tesla's ZEV credit sales dropped to $0 by the end of 2013. The swap stations could fulfill the requirement, although there was once talk that CARB would bar the technology, disallowing battery changing for actual recharging solutions. But that won't matter in the short term; we should find out what the Tesla-buying public thinks of swapping soon. Head over to GigaOm for more pictures of the station.

Even hardcore Tesla fans can get stranded sometimes

Driving a few laps around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a Tesla Model S can be quite a treat. Driving between Los Angeles and Las Vegas? Sometimes, not so much. The fine folks at Teslarati had the good fortune of taking the all-electric luxury sedan for a few spins around the racetrack near Sin City, and found that the Tesla handled "quite well" and was able to reach a top speed of 110 miles per hour on one of the straightaways. And the car turned in a best time of two minutes and 17 seconds around the 2.4-mile circuit. Still, the car started limiting its own power as early as its second lap, and by the seventh lap or so, the car brought down its power capacity to about 25 percent in order to conserve juice. The drivers were able to make do because a Tesla Supercharger fast-charging station was 11 miles away and they could get a good charge in about an hour. Less of a treat was the car's performance between Vegas and Southern California. Despite being big Tesla fans (the driver writes for Teslarati, after all), the unexpected appearance of 35-mile-per-hour headwinds and the totally expected elevation changes between Las Vegas and Barstow, CA proved particularly problematic. The driver slowed down to 40 mph and dropped the Model S' power consumption to something in the 400-500 wh/m range, but still, our intrepid explorers ran out of juice and were stranded beside the road until Tesla kindly arranged for a tow. D'oh!

Dealers' suit against Tesla dismissed in MA court

Tesla has been facing resistance from dealer associations with its factory-owned dealerships since the start-up automaker first started selling cars, but it won another big case in Massachusetts when a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought on by the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association (MSADA). According to Automotive News, the case was dismissed after the judge said the association "lacked standing to sue" despite the fact that MSADA executive vice president quotes the state law as saying, "A factory cannot own a store."
The latest lawsuit follows a similar suit from back in October where the MSADA attempted to prevent Tesla from opening a store in a suburban Boston mall; the electric car maker received approval to open another store in Natick, MA, which brought on this second lawsuit. It's unlikely this is the last we've heard about this issue in Massachusetts and in other states, but Tesla seems to be coming out victorious in each case so far. While laws pertaining to dealerships vary state to state, factory-owned dealers are usually noncompliant with state law - a lesson Chrysler learned back in 2011.