145kW Supercharging?

[ratsbew]

Most Superchargers installed in the past two years supposedly top out at 145kW. Will Tesla allow the Model 3 to charge up to 145kW as a software update if any competition comes along that has a charging speed advantage? The rumor is that Model 3 is capable of higher than 120kW, but they don't want to make it seem better than the Model S.

Model 3 is so efficient on the highway that it already gains MANY more miles per minute than anything else on the road. It already gains about 8-9 miles of highway range per minute of supercharging while in the zone at 120KW. The new cars from Audi, Porsche, and Jaguar have such high Wh/mile that even if they are charging at a higher kW it is effectively slower charging.

Model 3 charging at 145kW would be about 10.5 miles per minute at 230Wh/mile.

This makes for some serious road tripping beyond what we have now. Assuming that you arrive to a Supercharger in the zone where the battery can accept the full 145kW and leave just as it starts to taper, you could get over 150 miles in 15 minutes.

 

[ewoodrick]

Max charge rate generally isn't a factor of software, it's the hardware.

 

[Tslrsx]

It's a hardware issue. First there's the charging loss of 5-10%, second the cable can't handle more power safely. (Remember the liquid cooled cables Tesla was testing more than a year ago). The handle also heats up more than I prefer.

 

[COrocket]

Maybe with the V3 supercharger we will see increased charge rates. The Model 3 tear down shows the internal cables are heavier gauge, so it’s possible that the current pedestal hardware is limited to 120kw even though the Model 3 could accept more

 

[Rocky_H]

Keep in mind that as you heard these power numbers for the Superchargers increasing from 90kW to 120kW to 135 and 145kW, they generally are not increasing the charging rate of the cars. They are the power level available to each pair of Superchargers put together. So even with the 145kW stations, 120kW is still the max per car. The benefit is just in more speed for the paired car, so it's not slowed down as much. The 3 seems to be just a little bit higher overall than the S and X maybe. Where the S and X can usually only see real rates about 114-116kW or so most of the time, I think there have been some Model 3 reports of 119kW. Here's a thread of people posting the max Supercharger rates they've seen:
What was your maximum charge rate at a supercharger?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Yes, as already stated, the maximum for Tesla cars is 120kW (about 330-365 amps). The maximum output of the v2 Supercharger is indeed 145kW.

The Model 3 is capable of 525 amps, according to Tesla, so I expect 175-200kW with v3 Superchargers:

For example:

525A * 330V = 175kW
525A * 380V = 200kW

I expect the Model S and X to be capable of 750A, when updated with the 2170 cells in a 120kWh pack.

750A * 330V = 250kW

 

[jsmay311]

Most Superchargers installed in the past two years supposedly top out at 145kW. Will Tesla allow the Model 3 to charge up to 145kW[...]?.

Looks like someone was onto something back in Sept 2018.

Tesla Superchargers (V2) will get upgraded to 145 kW charge rate, worldwide

 

[ratsbew]

Glad to see my speculation coming true.

 

[preilly44]

Does anybody know if they have been updated to 145kw yet? I have a road trip coming up next week.

 

[Go Dawgs]

I used the supercharger in Birmingham, AL today and it had not been updated.

 

[jsmay311]

Does anybody know if they have been updated to 145kw yet? I have a road trip coming up next week.

Idk if the software update happens on the Supercharger side or the vehicle side, but I would've guess it's on the vehicle side.

The software update that includes changes for Supercharger V3 compatibility and battery pre-heating when navigating to a Supercharger are part of the 2019.7.11 software version, which I don't think is widely released yet. So, while I don't know for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if you need this recent software update before you can get 145kW from a V2 Supercharger.

2019.7.11