Extra Battery in the Trunk

13

Description

Add battery capacity by having additional batteries in the trunk well or maybe the Frunk.

Competitive/Pricing/Notes

It could be an option for new vehicles and a possible rebuild (connection and fixing) for existing vehicles. I am not able to foresee how many extra KW this battery pack could contain.

Moderator: Perhaps surprisingly, we understand that the trunk well in the Model S was originally intended for additional batteries. Once they could fit more advanced cells (at the time) into the main battery pack, the extra pack was not needed. By not using the well, it reduced complexity, cost, and weight. It also allowed for battery swapping, which was thought to be an important future feature when the car was designed.

Adding additional batteries beyond the pack also requires additional changes to the car, including a larger cooling/heating system, larger radiators, additional plumbing, and HV wiring, perhaps a new charger, suspension changes for the added weight, and possible structural changes for both safety and carrying the additional weight.

Status

Unknown.

Category: CY3XS Applies to:
Tags:
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     Created 13-Sep-2015
Johnny
418

4 Comments

The question is, should you pack in more batteries, or deal with those supplied be they 65 75 85 90 or 100 kWh.  I consider supplied batteries sufficient to deal with my use of the car, and that any add-on system would be a needless expense.
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    Created 2-Oct-2018
HammoJ
0
I thought of and liked this idea too, but more as an emergency roadside thing or long trips.  If you ran out of battery on road, AAA could have a Tesla battery or Tesla itself could just bring one with 30 miles on it to get you to the next charging station.  Or if you have a long road trip you could buy a couple to have or rent (might be too expensive).  Seems like a no brainer, especially for the roadside assistance (electric gas can).

 
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    Created 25-Sep-2018
Matt
0
The expected power density (more kwh in the same size and weight) improvement rate is 5 to 10%/year. Over the time it would take to install enough swapping stations to make it a viable solution the gain in battery capacity could be around 50%... a 20 minutes stop every 200 miles is not so bad until then, in my opinion.
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    Created 8-Oct-2015
Dorval
363
Thank You for an interesting reply. Swapping stations in Europe, if any, will surely be low in numbers. Tesla is, fortunately, not going stop at the new 90 KW battery pack. 100 or more may be the target. So not to be left too far behind, it would be nice to have the opportunity of an extra battery pack.
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    Created 13-Sep-2015
Johnny
418