Tesla Supercharger V3: Everything You Need To Know

[TMC Staff]

Tesla is making positive strides when it comes to announcements and transparency. Not too long ago, it seemed Tesla would make an announcement, and we’d still have plenty of questions. Sometimes press releases were few and far between and/or the company wouldn’t update information on its website very quickly. Then, we’d have to count on...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2019/03/07/tesla-supercharger-v3-additional-details/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

 

[Dylanpete]

@Steven Loveday, you wrote "The new system will work to cut charging time in half and will benefit all Tesla models. It offers a ridiculous 1,000 mile-per-hour charging rate!"
I've just seen the first video of insideevs showing the 1000 mi/hr.
Could that 1000 mi/hr soon be surpassed considering that Elon tweeted about an upcoming software update for all Model S/X/3 back to 201? It will roll out the On-Route Battery Warmup" feature further improving the average SC charging times by 25% !

 

[Silicon Desert]

Nice read. Gee, if these charging times keep reducing, I may have to consider towing a Porta Potty behind my Tesla since I won't have time to pee before it finishes charging

 

[Buster1]

What are those speeds doing to our batteries?

 

[jgs]

What are those speeds doing to our batteries?

Charging them.

 

[azred]

What are those speeds doing to our batteries?

Fragging them. Get a garage and 220 outlet.

 

[MrAustraliaTax]

Without taking away from the great improvement that 250kW supercharging is over the status quo, I can't help but be reminded of Elon's disparaging response to the 350kW charging announcements from other vendors a year or two back - he called 350kW "child's play".

 

[jgs]

he called 350kW "child's play".

As early childhood development experts know, child’s play turns out to be complex and sophisticated while appearing simple on the surface. Probably that was what he meant?

 

[Buster1]

Fragging them. Get a garage and 220 outlet.

Personally, 99.9% of my charging is in my garage every night. (Just installed my new sig wall charger!). I’m simply wondering what these speeds will do to a battery pack and how Tesla aims to keep packs that charge this fast healthy? Last we heard simple supercharging (v2) at typical speeds could end up permanently damaging batteries and having speeds throttled.

My prediction is that a lot of cars will experience throttling once the V3 chargers are more widespread.

 

[srasto]

Since battery carries a warranty for 8 years, I wouldn't be overly worried. I am sure Telsa thought and tested battery degradation issue before V3 launch since they wouldn't want to throw themselves in a recall/warranty replacement nightmare!

 

[jmhays]

Steven, thanks for the great article. I may have missed it, but with the new V3 SuperCharger need a complete new station? Or just a change in charging cable? Will existing SuperChargers be upgraded or do we need to wait for a new SuperCharging station/location to be built?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Steven, thanks for the great article. I may have missed it, but with the new V3 SuperCharger need a complete new station? Or just a change in charging cable? Will existing SuperChargers be upgraded or do we need to wait for a new SuperCharging station/location to be built?

As has been mentioned:
- V3 Supercharger will be a new set-up. Tesla is not going to upgrade existing v2 Superchargers to v3.
- Tesla will upgrade v2 Superchargers to 145kW maximum.

 

[goldengate]

As has been mentioned:
- V3 Supercharger will be a new set-up. Tesla is not going to upgrade existing v2 Superchargers to v3.
- Tesla will upgrade v2 Superchargers to 145kW maximum.

That was my understanding, but during the Model Y unveiling he seemed to imply that (a) all new superchargers would be V3 and (b) they were going to retrofit the older stations. Did anyone else hear that? It was the part where he was talking about how new SC deployment had slowed while they were waiting for V3 to be ready, but now that it's ready they will ramp up SC deployment again, implying that those will be V3.

 

[garrett5688]

That was my understanding, but during the Model Y unveiling he seemed to imply that (a) all new superchargers would be V3 and (b) they were going to retrofit the older stations. Did anyone else hear that? It was the part where he was talking about how new SC deployment had slowed while they were waiting for V3 to be ready, but now that it's ready they will ramp up SC deployment again, implying that those will be V3.

Yes i heard that also and was surprised.

skip to 25:12

 

[TexasEV]

We all know that Elon doesn’t speak precisely sometimes. The upgrading he was referring to was probably the announced upgrade to 145 kW, but he mentioned it in the middle of talking about version 3 superchargers so it sounded like upgrading existing ones to version 3. Unless he’s changed his mind from what he announced the week before, but that’s never happened, has it?

 

[Sonny Daze]

"So we're going to be rolling out the version 3 Supercharger, uh, throughout the world, just gradually updating, uh, the existing sites as well as adding new sites..."

I want to think that means v3, but then why even mention increasing v2 speed to 145kW and decoupling bays?

Maybe it's a two step process. Increase to 145kW and split bays, then gradually update to v3. Gradually could mean almost anything.

 

[Gen3]

I interpret as the intent is to leave most of the existing sites as V2 with the 145kw upgrade. However a few very busy sites, like hawthorne, will get V3, maybe as a mix of V2 and V3

 

[camthehombre]

I’m curious to see what the charging curve looks like with this new update. If they bump older cars to 145 kW the curve would have to be moved a bit I’d imagine. Even now a lot of cars can’t stay at 120 kW for long, much less a higher rate. I wonder if we will see cars allow more charge with this update like currently if a car is at 50% SoC and it can only take 70 kW (just throwing a number out there) maybe with this update at 50% SoC it can still accept 80 kW and won’t drop to 70 kW until 60%. Not sure if that’s even possible but I imagine something like this would have to happen to increase charge rate/decrease charge time as much as Elon is saying... or maybe I’m just overthinking it.