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Tesla first launched the supercharger network back in September 2012 with 6 stations located throughout California. And since then, the supercharger network has become Tesla’s biggest advantage in the EV world. As of the end of Q1 2022, Tesla announced that the EV maker’s supercharger locations have grown to 3,724 sites and 33,657 supercharger connectors.
This makes Tesla’s supercharger by far the biggest and most extensive DC fast-charging network in the world. Not only that, Tesla places supercharger locations strategically along major highways, meaning, beyond sheer numbers, this makes superchargers even more useful for long-distance travel.
When Tesla first unveiled the supercharger V1, it had a maximum output of 100KW. And later on, Tesla increased this number to 145KW with V2 superchargers. And in 2019, Tesla made another leap in charging technology.
In 2019 the EV maker not only announced it increased the max charging rate to 250KW with V3 superchargers but also introduced On-route Battery Warmup. This enabled Tesla vehicles that are en route to supercharger stations to warm up their batteries so that the vehicle arrives at the optimal temperature for charging. This decreased supercharging times by a further 25%.
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All these factors added together have made Tesla’s superchargers the fastest and most convenient means of charging an electric vehicle for a while. To this day, the latter still holds, however, with the emergence of new charging networks and EVs that can charge at more than 250KW, Tesla has lost its number 1 spot both for the fastest charging EVs and the highest-powered DC fast charger.
Currently, Electrify America & Ionity, both competing charging networks to Tesla’s superchargers, have DC fast chargers that can output as much as 350KW. And vehicles like the recently launched Lucid Air and the Porsche Taycan have max charging speeds as high as 300KW & 270KW respectively.
More important than the max charging speed is the charging curve. This shows how quickly charging speeds fall as the battery starts to fill up. And when you take the charging curve into consideration, Tesla vehicles start to fall even further behind than the competition.
However, the world’s most valuable carmaker doesn’t seem like it will accept being seconds to anyone. Tesla and CEO Elon Musk had previously hinted at an upcoming max charging increase for Tesla vehicles.
For instance, speaking at the Cybertruck unveiling event back in 2019, Musk, even though held off from revealing the actual charging speed for the futuristic truck, has still unequivocally stated that the Cybertruck will have over 250KW charging capability.
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Elon Musk was also asked if Tesla plans to go beyond Porche Taycan’s claimed 350KW peak (later lowered to 270KW) charging at Tesla’s earnings call in 2020. And during his answer, Musk said, for its next supercharger iteration, Tesla is looking at around 350KW.
Still, despite Tesla hinting at faster-charging speeds for a while, the supercharger speed has been capped at 250KW since 2019. Lucky for us, however, with a recent glitch in Tesla’s app hinting at 387 KW charging speed and a new leak of a schematic drawing of V4 superchargers, it doesn’t look like it will be long before we see a Tesla charging in speeds over 250kW.
Our first hint at a faster V4 Tesla supercharger came in the way of Twitter user and Tesla owner TOI BOI. While TOI BOI was looking for a supercharger in the Tesla app, a station located at Boisbriand Quebec, Canada showed him a max charging speed of 387KW.
do you have something to tell us @elonmusk or is this a mistake https://t.co/GFAGCHRdp8— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) April 30, 2022
TOI BOI sadly was unable to visit the station and see if the supercharger actually is able to out the claimed 387KW. And soon after Tesla changed the max charging speed at the station to 250KW.
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Most people haven’t given this incident much thought and have simply dismissed it as a one-off glitch uncorrelated with Tesla’s plans to increase supercharging speed however, today we got a second hint that suggests Tesla is working on faster V4 superchargers.
The information comes from @MarcoRPTesla, which is a Twitter page focused on Tesla superchargers. Even though the channel did not share the source of the leak, the Twitter page has nonetheless given us the dimension of the next-generation V4 superchargers.
As for the V4 design, it looks like Tesla will be using a different shell than the current V2 and V3 models.While I have yet to determine the new shape, I was able to find the dimensions so that it can be compared to the current model. pic.twitter.com/QQhtDgHfCJ— MarcoRP (@MarcoRPTesla) July 9, 2022
As you can see from the pictures above, as compared to the V2 and V3 superchargers, the V4 superchargers are noticeably taller, much thinner from side to side, and have about the same size thickness.
As of now, this is all the information we have regarding the V4 superchargers. However, we will be sure to keep you posted as we learn more about Tesla’s plans. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.
So what do you think? Excited to see the first glimpse of Tesla’s next-generation V4 superchargers? Also, what do you think of the new dimensions, and what’s your hope for the V4 supercharger max speed? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
Image: Taken from @MarcoRPTesla Twitter page
For more information check out: Tesla Model S And Model X Now Recognize Potholes On The Road, And Will Soon Be Able To Avoid Them
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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