There's one other thing going on here that no one has mentioned. Tesla is now holding around 1.5 C charging rate all the way to 50% charge. That's a big jump over the P100D which only held a little over 1C to 50%.
Jason Hughes specs on the P100D modules also only quote 1C for a max continuous charging rate.
Have you seen a formal charging spec for model 3 anywhere? I can't find one other than the press release that quoted 170 miles in 30 minutes (see response number 41)
George,
I can't talk to Jason Hughes's specs on the modules, but the S/X100 pack charges at up to 1.16C [119/102.4] on a Gen2 Supercharger. They peak at 119kW into a 102.4kWh battery. What we don't know is whether Tesla will allow greater than 119kW, 1.16C, from a Gen3 Supercharger.
There are some interesting coincidences with Model 3 charging rate that I haven't seen anybody talk about yet. According to Tesla's EPA filing on Model 3 LR, it's capable of DC fast charging at 525A. That means it could peak around 180kW, assuming the Gen3 Superchargers can output that much power (which I think is a reasonable assumption).
What's interesting with that number is that it's 50% greater than the 120kW capability of today's Gen2 Superchargers. But Model 3 LR has 48% more battery capacity than Model 3 SR. If we scale down the 3 LR peak amperage of 525A to the 3 SR battery, it's about 354A. That's about the same maximum amperage for a Gen2 Supercharger, which is about 360A. So
Tesla appears to have sized Model 3 SR DC fast charge capability to match the amperage output from the Gen2 Supercharger.
If this is true, Model 3 SR will also charge very near 120kW, at least for the lower portion of it's charge cycle. It seems obvious in hindsight that Tesla would optimize Model 3 SR charging to the current Supercharging network.
To help answer your question about charging spec, I haven't heard of Tesla stating anything other than the 170mi in 30 min in the press release.
The only thing related, that I know of, came from Elon during the 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting when asked about future Supercharger capability (
53:20). He said that the key figure of merit is the charging ratio of drive time to charge time. He said it should be at least 6:1 if not 8:1 or 10:1.
- That ratio for Model 3 LR on a Gen2 Supercharger is 7:1 when at 119kw and decreasing to 3:1 at 80%.
- That ratio for Model 3 LR on a Gen3 Supercharger could be 11:1 if it can charge at 180kW and again decreasing to 3:1 at 80%.
- That ratio for Model 3 SR on either a Gen2 or Gen3 Supercharger is likely 7:1 at peak rate and also decreasing to 3:1 at 80%.
So if you average that ratio over a notional Supercharger cycle from say 15 to 70%, the Model 3 LR ratio is ~8:1 on a Gen3 Supercharger and Model 3 LR and SR both have a ratio of ~6:1 on a Gen2 Supercharger. (Again speculating on 3 SR charging speeds and Gen3 capability.)
These numbers assume an average power output of 17kW which is approximately Model 3 power consumption at 70mph.
