Battles with Integrity

Brian, thanks for posting the link to the video, it was well worth watching.

The actual times for battery swapping that Agassi has mentioned are in the 3-5 minute range, not one minute.

Even if it's doubled to ten minutes, the key thing is that battery swapping is generally an exception. He also mentions calculating the average user will only need to swap batteries every 2-4 weeks. Unless you drive > 60 or whatever miles one way a day. To put it in perspective, their plans call for "250,000 charging ports, 200 battery-exchange stations" in the Bay Area. If swapping time doubles, you just need 2x the parking area at stations, and you can try to sell more things to people while they wait.

Brian, my main scepticisms are:

* Can enough batteries be made? Ie, is there enough lithium?

* May be leaning toward over-designing the tech in the system. Too many blythe mentions of using robotics (even for the charging stations, though it seems they will use a simple hand-plugged system at first). Developing their own "OS". Some of this might be a function of Wired reporting on it.

* Centralizing control (dispatch of vehicles to charging and battery swap stations) and payment. In another interview, he says he wants to be the "Google of electrons". Including the privacy issues and lock-in, apparently. Might be a nice business model, but rubs me the wrong way. Not enough that I'd pass up the subsidised car if they pull it off though. ;-)

I don't know if I'm convinced, but he has done a pretty good job of convincing me that I _don't_ want to but a hybrid, or a Chevy Volt.