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Latest V4 construction

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Given Tesla has opened up the network to Ford and Rivian this past week and more like GM to follow (vehicles with their charge ports in conflict with Tesla's current design), when will construction of V4 SCers for passenger vehicles start? Using supercharge.info all I see are short cabled V3 sites being built.

Or can V3 sites be easily converted to the LONGER cable needed to prevent stall blocking?
 
V3 can't easily be converted, the liquid cooled cables are probably as long s as they can be. Longer cables need more cooling.

I have noticed that in the V3 sites, they are putting the pedestals closer to the middle of the spot as opposed to edge that is optimal for Tesla. It sometimes means that I've got to park slightly askew.
 
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Reactions: APotatoGod
When it comes to electricity, transmitting it over longer runs means more resistance. More resistance creates more heat. This higher the flow, the more critical this becomes. It's a delicate balance to maintain a safe margin in all foreseeable conditions. As you can see, Superchargers are actually doing something extraordinary in such a good manner that it seems ordinary. The solutions to these problems aren't as simple as most people think. Adding cooling in v3 added another world of complexity but also allowed for much thinner conductors and/or longer cables to be used for the same or more power.

I think we're at a critical point where other manufacturers just need to design their cars around placing the NACS port in the proper location. This is truly the universal answer to the problem. It needs to become standardized like fuel tank fillers. You don't see them behind license plates any more because that's impractical for fueling. This is challenging because manufacturers all have their design language now centered around wherever they already decided to place the charge port. As silly as it sounds... this is going to be a weird hill that the other manufacturers die on to not look like they're "giving in" to Tesla even though they essentially already have. It's the optics and these established car manufacturers are all about optics of things.

The other thing that would help is if Tesla made the stalls all of the pull-thru variant. This is going to be challenging because Tesla's big push as of late has been to completely overhaul their Supercharger production process. They now create them on pedastals at the NY factory and then truck them to the location, pay a local crane operator to hoist them into place and then someone to land connections. Done. It's dramatically decreased the amount if time it takes to stand up a fresh Supercharger location. Because of this, there will be pushback and I can see why. More Superchargers in the landscape we're currently in is always the answer to the problem.

I just hope people will be polite ambassadors to those driving EVs of other manufacturers who also need to Supercharge to continue their travels making EV adoption easier. My hopes are low though given how poorly we've proven to handle these things historically as a community to those who are a member of the community. I fear that tribalism is only going to add a park to the powder keg that is Supercharging when the situations are less than ideal.