1. VW has stated that their charge network will use "open standards" that can be widely utilized, without specifying more. Expect multi-cord stations. Probably not good to expect Tesla connectors, though.
2. It very much will happen over the next couple years - it's part of their legal settlement to build it.
3. Supercharger V3 should almost certainly be rolling out by then. We know little about it apart from that it will be battery buffered and "make 350kW look like a child's toy". No word on whether that's for high power divided among many vehicles or whether it supports high power to individual vehicles - and if the latter, whether that's through higher voltages, higher currents, or both.
4. As noted elsewhere, higher voltages requires HV packs to take advantage of it - otherwise it's just wasted money. HV packs in their basic form not only cannot charge on current infrastructure (although, as noted, there are workarounds such as center taps); they also have poorer internal redundancy (more cells needed in series to reach the desired voltage), aka, higher degradation expected; have higher insulation requirements; and may (or may not) require compromises in the drive unit.
5. Higher charge currents require either multiple cables (a real hack solution) or cooled cables (much more realistic, and something Tesla has been working on) in order to keep their weight / flexibility manageable.
6. Regardless of the use of higher voltages or currents, higher charge rates mean more internal pack heating, which requires more cooling, and as low of coolant temperatures as allowable to maximize the rate of heat flow from the cell core to the exterior. Scaling up the onboard system several times over is probably not realistic, meaning that you probably need offboard coolant routed in through the cable and through an onboard heat exchanger.
7. It's worth noting that M3 has a strangely large charge port area compared to MS and MX. And the internal diagrams show lots of space under the surface, too. My presumption is that Tesla designed that space to be so large so as to make it easier to fit larger charge connectors there as-needed.
8. It's also worth noting that Tesla is now in CharIN, the group which will be making the next CCS standard. Hopefully Tesla and CCS will eventually globally unify, with a very high power, capable connector that's as compact as possible. In such a case, the provision of charge adapters and/or backwards compatibility cables at charge stations can be expected as almost a certainty. Hopefully Tesla will be able to stop them from making some pointlessly-backwards-compatible giant Frankenconnector as the standard.
My primary hope is that we'll end up with:
* A "New CCS Global Superconncetor" with both high voltage and cooling/high currents supported by the standard.
* 5 cable pedestals in the US: J1772 (for AC charging), CHAdeMO, CSS Combo, Tesla connector, and New-CCS.
* In the EU I'd hope for 3 cable pedestals (CHAdeMO, New-CCS, and CCS Combo with the combo section detachable/retractable and the Type 2 being able to provide either AC or Tesla-style DC).
* Many pedestals per very-high-power charger, and that the chargers are buffered.
* Old chargers retrofit with new pedestals.
* After 5-10 years of the new standard, all older cables phased out of the pedestals, with older vehicles instead relying on adapters
I guess we'll see. I sure hope we're not still stuck with a patchwork decades from now :Þ
