Remember when Elon Musk made a big deal about the near-magical 90-second Tesla battery swap that would permit his Model S to take on conventional vehicles, at least when it came to refueling/recharging times?

Yeah, we'd almost forgotten about it, too. It was well over a year ago that we first saw a dramatic demonstration of the technology in action, after all, and we have the memory of a goldfish. Then, radio silence. Until now -- according to Tesla, the electric automaker is set to roll out a pilot version of its quick-change battery swap technology, at least to an invitation-only group of Tesla owners.

The first station will open in Coalinga, Calif. Coalinga, you'll note, is juuuuuust about halfway between Los Angeles and San Franciso. There's already a Supercharger station there, so if you're not one of the few selected for the pilot program, you can still make the roughly 400-mile trek in your Model S without worring about running out of juice.

Because Tesla is installing titanium armor on the undersides of its Model S sedans -- to prevent the sort of damage that has led to roadside fires, remember -- the company says the changeout takes a little longer than the 90 seconds initially promised. For now, it will take three minutes to swap packs (on par with, if not better than, a gasoline fill-up), though automation technology could reduce that to a minute or less.

Unlike the Supercharger network, the battery swap won't be free. Tesla says it'll cost "slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan," which, given fuel costs in Coalinga, is somewhere in the vicinity of $75 at the time of writing.

We're eager to see whether or not this technology can be rolled out on a nationwide scale. If nothing else, it would give Tesla something to do with its proposed Gigafactory's massive battery production capacity.

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