Tesla (TSLA) Plans to Open First Battery-Swapping Station Soon

Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) is planning its first battery-swapping station soon.

Speaking at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) town hall last week, CEO Elon Musk said that company is going to open a battery-replacement station following a demonstration of the technology last summer. The executive commented, We plan to implement that between L.A. and San Francisco to start off, and then see what the customer interest is and what percentage of people use that versus supercharging ... We're a little late on that, because we got preoccupied on a few other issues.

Musk also said the company is working on autonomous technology for upcoming cars, though that in itself isn't breaking news.

Finally, Musk also commented on how Tesla nearly went bankrupt a few years back, saying, With Tesla, we had multiple near-death experiences ... What are the odds of a car company succeeding? Pretty darn low. And in fact, at Tesla we came within a few days of being bankrupt. We closed the financing round at the end of 2008 in the last hour of the last day in which it was possible to do that, which was basically 6 p.m., Christmas Eve, 2008. We would have gone bankrupt a few days after Christmas. So these were real close call.

Shares of Tesla are down in early trading Monday.

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