Interesting swinging lifestyle! Swapping the most valuable part of the car... First there were GF swapping, then wife swapping, then now, there's battery swapping. No doubt battery swapping designed mainly for ZEV credits.

But seriously, a 1300-lb battery pack that also serve as structural member of the car and is also liquid cooled may not be so easily swapped.
Maintaining fully charged batteries at the station ready for the next swap will rapidly age the battery and shorten its life span.
When people don't own the battery pack, they will more likely not taking good care of it, like keeping it fully charged all the time, or drain it completely many times, or excessive heat exposure.

That's mad and heavy polluting. Tesla is heading toward bankruptcy that will happen sooner than later. That's the more costly solution there is. 99.9% of the time there won't be anyone in this silly swap station. Im glad im the owner of a simple less polluting car than the tesla. More and more financial analysts are downgrading tesla stock price. This company come from mars and is doing costly tourism on earth.

Battery swapping might be a good idea if the batteries are made up of modules of, say 30 kWh, a piece, and you buy the car but lease the battery instead. So, to cut cost down, you lease only 30 kWh's worth of battery, good for 100-mi range per charge. The car is designed to hold 90 kWh of batteries, or 3 packs max. So, buying the car sans battery, you will knock off $44k off the sticker price of $80k, or paying~$36-40k instead. You'll pay lease yearly on the battery pack, but it won't be so bad, because you will save a lot of money on gasoline.

If you opt for less power, say, 180 hp instead of the 365 hp, you will pay even less than $36-40k. At ~$65 per hp, having 185 fewer ponies will save ya $12k off the sticker price, or $36-40k - 12k = $24-28k...for a Tesla?????Hmmm, too good to be true, or what?
I'd say, Tesla ought to slap $7k more of profits, to make the new Tesla at least comparable in purchase price to the new Leaf at $29k, or Chevy Volt, at $35k. We surely don't want to make Tesla looks cheap, do we?

Your car will be much lighter (867 lbs lighter) with 30 kWh battery pack instead of a 90 kWh pack, and you're doing good for the environment by not hoarding all that batteries to yourself, but sharing with other people, so that 3x more car can be made for the same car that contains a 90 kWh pack.

If you need to drive more than 100 miles for certain day, you can swap out your pack for another pack en-route before your little pack will be depleted, or add on another pack or two packs ahead of time to hold 60-90 kWh of battery total before the long day of driving or before the long journey. En-route, you can either use the SuperCharger stations or SuperSwapper stations, which ever will be available that you can find. Then, at the conclusion of your trip, you return the two extra packs that you rented for the journey to the swapping stations, and keep the 30 kWh pack that you're leasing.

This will be a win-win-win-win (win^4) solution for everyone. You win, for being able to afford the 30kWh-Tesla car that you're dreaming of. Your friends win because, by not hoarding the rest of battery to yourself, they, too, can find more Teslas available to buy. Tesla company will win, because Tesla company will be able to build 3x more cars for the same amount of battery available to them and triple the net profit, as well as more lucrative ZEV credits. The environment will win because less fossil fuels will be consumed.

Similar argument can be said for if Tesla would build a PHEV-20kWh, however, this will be only win^3, because the Battery Purists will be greatly disappointed and upset. Or worse, this may represent only win^2, because Tesla won't be getting as much ZEV credits per car, although Tesla will save a lot of money for not having to build Swapping stations, hence more profits! Hmm, quite an accounting dilemma here.

Good point, SJC.
Battery swapping stations should at least be on the out-bound side of interstates at the limit of the metroplex, for the car owners who lease a 30-kWh pack and want to rent two more 30-kWh packs for the long journey. I propose that batteries be built in 3 modules, of 30-kWh each module. You lease only ONE module of 30 kWh capacity for daily driving and good for 100 mile range, while renting two more modules after departing on a long journey for 90 kWh capacity, just before leaving the city limit. I further propose that you can always hang on to your leased pack, and only swap the other two rented packs. So, when en route and your leased pack shows 1/3 capacity, it's time to swap the other two packs. Then, you'll put your leased pack on SuperCharging at 4 C rate, or 120 kW for 30 kWh pack. Since your leased pack is only 2/3 depleted, or 20 kWh of charge needed, you will be done charging in 10 minutes, plus the 3 minutes for the battery swapping, total 13 minutes! Just enough time for bathroom break and fast food purchasing, and you'll be good for another 250-300 miles or so.

The important difference between buying and leasing battery is that in leasing the battery, it will keep the price of the car way down, and more people will be able to afford a Tesla.
Think of battery as a commodity, like gasoline or hydrogen. By being able to lease the battery, the resale value of the car will always be excellent, due to the lower wear and tear of the motor and electronics in comparison to ICE, vs. trying to sell a BEV with worn-out battery pack.
You can sign the lease for 5-10 years for fixed lease payments, so you can calculate your cost ahead of time and budget accordingly.

I think there are positives with this approach in that you could just own the car not the batteries. You would always have a leased battery pack that perhaps Tesla owns, maintains and guarantees the quality of. That way you would have a much lower purchase price for your car, and a resale price not diminished by having a degraded battery pack in it. Or maybe its a combination of your own 30kW pack as mentioned above and space to lease 2 more 30kW packs when you need them.

One factor none have commented on is the re-use of old battery packs: For lithium-ion batteries, there's a potential after-automotive use that can postpone destructive recycling for years. Even when an EV or hybrid battery can no longer hold and discharge sufficient electricity to power the car's motor, the pack can still carry a tremendous amount of juice. Battery manufacturers figure the packs will still be able to operate at about 80 percent of capacity when they have to be retired from automotive use. Auto companies are partnering with battery, recycling and electronics firms to figure out and develop post-automotive markets for lithium-ion battery packs.

For instance, several major power utilities are working with companies — including General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Nissan — to explore the use of the batteries for stationary storage of the power produced in off-peak periods by wind turbines and solar generation stations. Lithium-ion packs also are being tested as backup power storage systems for retail centers, restaurants and hospitals, as well as for residential solar systems.

Could Tesla use this battery swap to get their hands on these old packs for secondary use while swapping in new packs for EV owners as part of a servicing plan?

Looks like Shai Agassi has a job waiting for him at Tesla.