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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.
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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%.
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 emergency 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 Porche 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.
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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 charing 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 still has unequivocally stated that the Cybertruck will have over 250KW charging capability.
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, we now have our first glimpse that the EV maker is planning to roll out a faster 387KW charging capability for its superchargers.
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The information comes 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.
As of now it’s not exactly clear if this was simply a glitch in Tesla’s app however, given Tesla has been hinting at 350KW plus superchargers since 2019 it will not at all be surprising if Tesla has increased Supercharger V3 capability or introduced a new V4 supercharger and this is our first glimpse.
Tesla enthusiast, investor, and FSD Beta tester WholeMarsCatalog put the same question to the Tesla CEO himself on Twitter, however, Musk is yet to make a comment. We will be sure to keep you posted if we get further information.
Until then make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.
So what do you think? Excited that Tesla might be increasing supercharging speed to 387KW? Also, do you think the charging speed shown at Boisbriand was simply a glitch? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image: Courtesy of Tesla
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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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