Forget Pumping Gas: Tesla Owners Can Now Swap Their Battery In 90-Seconds Flat

There are a few reasons why you might not buy an electric car. The fact that typical recharge times can be measured in moon cycles is one of them, but electric sports car pioneer Tesla has come up with a 90-second battery switch that makes filling your car with unleaded look like a serious waste of time.

At a high-profile unveil at the company’s design base in Hawthorne, California, CEO Elon Musk revealed the ‘supercharger’ drive-in process that customers will be able to tap into on the USA's West Coast soon, with the East Coast coming online soon after that.

You drive your Tesla Model S into the supercharger station and park it over a specific spot. While you stay where you are, a platform lifts the car up and an arm reaches up, disconnects the depleted battery and yoinks it out of the car. You then get lowered back to earth and a new battery is slotted straight in. And in the meantime you'll have fired up your smartphone to have a crack at one of our Guess The Car challenges.

This speed is big news for electric cars. Tesla designed the Model S to hold swappable batteries but this is the first time the tech has been officially showcased. Check out this video, broadcast as part of the unveil, showing a side-by-side comparison of the Model S having its batteries swapped versus an Audi in need of 23 US gallons of juice. Needless to say, the Tesla could have disappeared into the next county by the time the Audi is ready to roll.

It might not be cheap, this, because on top of whatever Tesla charges you for the battery you've also got to pay to have the old battery taken away. And Tesla has got to get its money back on the rumoured $500,000 cost for every supercharger station. There's no word on end-user prices yet, but mega-rich Tesla owners are hardly going to complain. There are still details for the company to iron out, but make no mistake: this could be the first nail in the internal combustion coffin.

Speaking of which, check out Nissan’s amazing 300kph electric Le Mans racer. Watch out Audi...