150kW Supercharging for Model 3

[Zoomit]

With the rollout of 2019.12.1, the release notes indicate the Model 3 can charge up to 150kW at updated V2 Superchargers. This is obviously an incremental increase from the previous peak charging power of 120kW prior to full release of 250kW on V3 Superchargers. This release also includes the On-Route Battery Warmup (ORBW) that will facilitate this peak charging rate when a Supercharger is selected in navigation.

If the Tesla engineers are aggressive with the battery profiles, this could lead to a significant increase in SR/SR+ charging speeds, which are currently limited to 102kW. The larger battery cars could also see a significant increase in charging speeds, again dependent on how aggressive Tesla engineers are with the taper point.

With proper warmup and no stall sharing, I expect the charge power to rapidly rise to near 150kW. I predict it will plateau until the initial taper point where it will linearly decrease until the end. My most optimistic (read: highest) predictions for the initial Model 3 taper points are:

LR: 45%
MR: 28%
SR+: 18%
SR: 20%

This is especially aggressive for SR/SR+ cars. It's very possible they will not experience anything near 150kW with this release.

Please share what peak charging rates you see. Also, share what battery level percentage it starts to taper, if you catch it. It would also be interesting to know if you used ORBW and how long and at what speed you drove prior to the charge session.

 

[Zoomit]

According to electrek, this update will only be for the LR battery (+S/X):

"With a new software update coming out this week, Model 3 Long Range vehicles, as well as Model S and Model X vehicles with 100 kWh battery packs, are going to be able to take advantage of the new 150 kW charge rate.​

Would love to hear from any SR/+ or MR owners that get 2019.12.1 about whether their release notes include the reference to 150kW.

 

[Zoomit]

There’s still hope for SR/+ and MR cars getting some charge rate improvement with 2019.12.1.

According to a reddit post, an X 75D got a slightly higher charge profile. The 75D was previously limited to 98kW but now appears to peak at 105kW.

 

[Tz00]

3 LR charging this morning:

Started charging at 8% @ 51kW
At 16% it was 138kW
At 18% it was 145kW
At 20% it was 145kW
At 31% it was 144kW
At 40% it was 143kW
At 47% it was 135kW
At 50% it was 125kW
At 51% it was 119kW
At 53% it was 113kW

The highest I ever saw before the 2019.12.1 update was 114kW.

I had the destination set to the SC, but it started out slower than I thought it was supposed to.

Edit: That charge was 17 minutes long.

 

[Zoomit]

3 LR charging this morning:

Started charging at 8% @ 51kW
At 16% it was 138kW
At 18% it was 145kW
At 20% it was 145kW
At 31% it was 144kW
At 40% it was 143kW
At 47% it was 135kW
At 50% it was 125kW
At 51% it was 119kW
At 53% it was 113kW

The highest I ever saw before the 2019.12.1 update was 114kW.

I had the destination set to the SC, but it started out slower than I thought it was supposed to.

Edit: That charge was 17 minutes long.

Great data--thank you. @Tz00 How long was your drive to get to the SC? Maybe your battery wasn't fully warm?

 

[Tz00]

I drove about 180km via highways before arriving, so it should have been warm. I set the destination of the SC at least 30km away. Outdoor temperature was about 9C.

 

[matija]

Not necessary, there were I-Pace customers who have driven 200+ km on highway (but with mild driving speeds) and got very bad speeds. However, Model3 uses even less cobalt within its battery, hence even higher temperature relation when charging at high speeds.

You really have to Drive the car to warm up the battery fully.

 

[Zoomit]

Not necessary, there were I-Pace customers who have driven 200+ km on highway (but with mild driving speeds) and got very bad speeds. However, Model3 uses even less cobalt within its battery, hence even higher temperature relation when charging at high speeds.

You really have to Drive the car to warm up the battery fully.

I agree. That drive, especially in 9C (48F) ambient temps, wouldn't necessarily warm up the battery to the optimal temperature, which is around 40C (104F). The ORBW may not have an enough time to get it to optimal conditions in only 30 km (20min?). Nevertheless, it's an interesting data point as we don't really know how long ORBW takes to properly warm the battery.

 

[TexasEV]

Started charging at 8% @ 51kW

I had the destination set to the SC, but it started out slower than I thought it was supposed to.

The slow ramp up is typical when you arrive with that low of a SOC.

 

[Zoomit]

The slow ramp up is typical when you arrive with that low of a SOC.

That is typical historically, but the vehicles at the V3 demo did a quick ramp to 250kW. Also, a demo Model 3 at Hawthorn V3 SC at the Model Y Reveal ramped quickly from 1% SOC, shown at about 23:23 here:

The unanswered question is whether a car with properly warm battery will ramp quickly on 2019.12.1.

 

[Zoomit]

In this thread, there’s an example of an LR AWD car getting 138 kW at 30%.

This isn’t too exciting, as it’s less than the previous example above, but it also shows only 500 mi/hr. It should show ~564, which means the screen indication is still limited to an arbitrary 500 mi/hr on 12.1 as it has been on previous builds.

 

[Tz00]

Mine showed 805 km/h (~500mi/h) from 145kW down to 125kW.

 

[Tz00]

Also, TeslaFi showed a max of 500mi/h charge rate.

 

[Zoomit]

Mine showed 805 km/h (~500mi/h) from 145kW down to 125kW.

Thanks for the confirmation! I’m not sure why Tesla does this as I’m sure they want to emphasize these speeds to owners and possible buyers. I expect they’ll remove the 500 mi/hr limit in a future software revision.

For reference, a 3LR RWD should show ~640 mi/hr at 150kW. That’s so much above 500 that the discrepancy will be obvious.

 

[TexasEV]

The mph is meaningless anyway. Look at the kW.

 

[Roman92]

Anybody with SR or SR+ get increased kw with update?

 

[willow_hiller]

Anybody with SR or SR+ get increased kw with update?

I haven't even heard of anyone with an SR+ receiving the update.

 

[Zoomit]

After a very limited rollout of 2019.12.1, they've replaced it with 2019.12.1.1 and are pushing it very quickly to the previous 12.1 users. It's impossible to know what they tweaked but it was critical enough to do rapidly. I don't suspect any of the 150kW charging details changed.

@Silver Ghost posted pictures of a recent charge session in another thread, one is reposted below. The text says it got up to 145kW and this image seems to indicate a very rapid rise to 140kW. (Notice the "+0 kWh" which means this was immediately after the session began.)

I have to think the battery was fully warmed up to get that that rapid rise, so the report of 145kW peak power, and not 150kW, is mildly disappointing. Since this session started at 37%, there's still hope for 150kW at a lower SOC. Corroborating evidence for a warm battery is the outdoor temp was 86F and it was late in the afternoon.

 

[craigcabrey]

V2 charging equipment doesn’t support 150 kW, they go up to 145 kW. The 150 kW peak rate is much more relevant to EU owners that have access to third party DCFC networks (such as the hypercharger).

Yet another reason we should be pressuring Tesla for a CCS adapter.

 

[SoManyM3s]

V2 charging equipment doesn’t support 150 kW, they go up to 145 kW. The 150 kW peak rate is much more relevant to EU owners that have access to third party DCFC networks (such as the hypercharger).

Yet another reason we should be pressuring Tesla for a CCS adapter.

V2 superchargers were expected to be updated to 145 kW but after further software tweaks, they are able to achieve 150 kW and announced that that will be the new max on them.