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Super Cali's futuristic Tesla batt swap focus – even though car tech test is an expected bonus

Free charge or a fast battery switch – take your pick

Tesla Motors has a Christmas present for a few owners of its Model S all-electric cars, in the form of a pilot program for its new battery-swapping technology beginning in California next week.

Tesla founder Elon Musk showed off the tech at an event last year, where he demoed how a drained Model S battery could be replaced with a fully charged one in less time than it takes to fill a conventional car's fuel tank.

"This technology allows Model S owners in need of a battery charge the choice of either fast or free," the Tesla crew wrote in a blog post on Friday – the "free" method being Tesla's Supercharger network, which now consists of 312 stations where Tesla owners can load up on juice at no cost to them.

Starting next week, a select group of Model S owners will be invited to try out the "fast" option at Tesla's first public battery-swap station, located at its Supercharger facility in Harris Ranch, California.

Tesla hasn't specified how many drivers will be invited to participate, saying only, "This pilot program is intended to test technology and assess demand."

It also hasn't said how much a battery swap will cost, beyond that it will be "slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan." In the past, Musk has said that he expects the process to cost "at least $50," but he's never nailed down an exact figure.

What Tesla has said, however, is that the process of swapping out the battery will take somewhat longer in practice than the 90 seconds it took during Musk's 2013 demo.

"More time is needed to remove the titanium and hardened aluminum ballistic plates that now shield the battery pack, so the swap process takes approximately three minutes," the company explained. "With further automation and refinements on the vehicle side, we are confident that the swap time could be reduced to less than one minute, even with shields."

For that to happen, though, the pilot program guinea pigs will have to demonstrate that they'd be eager to pay for a battery swap rather than using the free Superchargers. If the demand isn't there to justify the additional engineering effort, Tesla says it may just leave the swap time at three minutes and call it a day. ®

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