Tesla unveiled a next-generation Supercharger that it says will recharge its vehicles faster than ever. The new V3 unit can recharge vehicles at a maximum rate of 250kW, according to a press release published on Tesla's website Wednesday night. The V3 charger was designed with the Tesla Model 3 sedan in mind. Its newer battery composition can accommodate the newer charger right away, while Model S and Model X vehicles will remain limited to 120kW charging for the time being. According to Tesla, the new V3 chargers can add up to 75 miles of range to a Model 3 Long Range vehicle in just five minutes. Tesla unveiled a next-generation Supercharger that it says will recharge its vehicles faster than ever. The new V3 unit can charge at a maximum rate of 250kW, according to a press release posted on Tesla's website Wednesday night. The V3 charger was designed with the Tesla Model 3 sedan in mind. Its newer battery composition can accommodate the newer charger right away, while Model S and Model X vehicles will remain limited to 120kW charging for the time being, The Verge reported. A planned software update will raise that cap to 145kW "in the coming months," Tesla said. According to Tesla, the new V3 chargers can add up to 75 miles of range to a Model 3 Long Range sedan in just five minutes, and "charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour." "Combined with other improvements we’re announcing today, V3 Supercharging will ultimately cut the amount of time customers spend charging by an average of 50%, as modeled on our fleet data," Tesla said in its statement Wednesday night. The new V3 chargers went online in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday. Additional locations are expected to open later. Read more: 2019 was supposed to be easy for Tesla, but now it's a circus The electric-car company has been keenly focused on developing its charging infrastructure — an effort that's been kicked into high gear since the Model 3 sedan, its first mass-market vehicle, went on sale. Echoing its previous remarks on the matter, the company said "charging needs to be even faster, and the number of vehicles able to charge at a location in a day needs to be significantly higher." To that end, Tesla says its new V3 chargers will also be able to charge vehicles at optimal rates, even at Supercharger stations where multiple vehicles are charging at once. "With thousands of new Superchargers coming online in 2019, the launch of V3, and other changes we’re making to improve throughput, the Supercharger network will be able to serve more than 2x more vehicles per day at the end of 2019 compared with today," Tesla said.<doc-sep>In Fremont today, Tesla is launching the next generation Supercharger V3 with higher charging capacity (250 kW), better efficiency, and more. Some of the most important points: 250 kW peak power without powershare between stations Just for Model 3 vehicles after software update for now Model S and Model X to follow later – again through software First non-beta stations coming in Q2 Tesla announced that new Supercharger is able to deliver a new 250 kW of peak power thanks to an “all-new liquid cooled cable design.” The video below shows it going even higher to 256kW. According to the company, the cable is “significantly lighter, more flexible, and more efficient” than their current air-cooled cable found on the V2 Superchargers. We reported earlier today that Tesla temporarily had a thinner Supercharger cable at its Computer History Museum location that was liquid cooled two years ago. The company eventually stopped using them and replaced them with the thicker traditional cable, but they said that they would go back to liquid-cooled cables at some point – that’s today. Here is the new Supercharger V3 cable (left) compared to the older one (right): Other than the cable, the Supercharger V3 should be undifferentiated from V2 at the station. The company didn’t even release new pictures for V3. If you look at little further however, you might see differences in the Supercharger cabinet (large metal boxes in the back of a station). The new 250 kW peak at the station is also enabled by a new 1 MW power cabinet. Instead of using onboard chargers staked together, the new Supercharger is built using technology Tesla developed for its massive grid energy storage system. With the new technology, there will be no power share between stalls like in the current version. On Tesla’s most efficient vehicles, like the Long Range Model 3, the company says that the new Supercharger V3 can add up to 75 miles of range in 5 minutes and charge at a peak rage of 1,000 miles per hour of range. The automaker released the following video to show the new charging capacity: In order to achieve this new top charge rate, Tesla goes beyond improving just its charging hardware. A new ‘On-Route Battery Warmup’ software feature was also announced. When entering a Supercharger station in your navigation system, the vehicle’s software will “intelligently heat the battery to ensure you arrive at the optimal temperature to charge.” That’s assuming you have enough charge in the battery when you come in. The new feature alone should reduce “average charge times for owners by 25%,” according to the automaker. Tesla says that the new peak charging rate is only for Model 3 (all produced to date) after a software update that will gradually ramp up as they deploy more new V3 Supercharger stations in the next quarter. The company did note that they will “increase Model S and X charging speeds via software updates in the coming months”, but they didn’t specify to what capacity. That said, they did say that they going to update current V2 infrastructure to a new peak charge rate of 145kW for single-vehicle charging (when not sharing the next Supercharger stall). They wrote about the availability of the new Supercharger capacity: “Beginning today, we’re opening the first public beta site in the Bay Area, which will incrementally be made available to owners in Tesla’s Early Access Program. We’re launching V3 Supercharging for Model 3, our highest volume vehicle, and we’ll continue to expand access as we review and assess the results of millions of charging events. We will increase Model S and X charging speeds via software updates in the coming months. V3 Supercharging will roll out to the wider fleet in an over the air firmware update to all owners in Q2 as more V3 Superchargers come online. Our first non-beta V3 Supercharger site will break ground next month, with North American sites ramping in Q2 and Q3 before coming to Europe and Asia-Pacific in Q4.” Tesla believes that by combining the with other improvements, V3 Supercharging will “ultimately cut the amount of time customers spend charging by an average of 50%. Tesla expects that reducing the time spent at the station and improving efficiency with the new cable and charging cabinet will result in significant cost savings for the Supercharger network. With the more capital efficient technology, they expect that they will accelerate the rollout and they are still committed to getting to “100% ownership coverage across all regions” in which they operate. Electrek’s Take That’s about what we expected for the specs, but I didn’t even think about how high the charge rate in mph would be for a vehicle as efficient as the Model 3 on that kind of power. 1,000 miles per hour of charging is crazy. Game changer really. That’s 100 miles in 6 minutes for those scoring at home. Also, the ‘On-Route Battery Warmup’ feature is brilliant. That’s the kind of thing that when you finally come up with it, you ask yourself why no one has thought of it before. That should help all Tesla owners back to 2012 Model S. Not only will Teslas charge faster, but they will leave the stalls quicker, increasing the amount of cars that can be charged at a station. The only thing I am disappointed in is the lack of clarity when it comes to the new charge rate capacity of Model S and Model X. It sounds like Model S/X battery architecture won’t be able to take 250 kW, but it will be increased from 120 kW in “the coming months”. OK, but increased by how much and vehicles produced since when will see the increase? When I asked, Tesla said that they couldn’t confirm it yet, but they will release more information throughout the beta program. That’s fair, but I think it will turn a lot of people away from Model S and Model X in the meantime. As for Model 3, it’s excellent news and it will become increasingly significant as Tesla deploys the new V3 Supercharger stations.<doc-sep>On Wednesday night, Tesla announced that it has developed a new, faster Supercharger for its electric vehicles. Currently, the company's almost-13,000 Superchargers top out at 120kW. This was class-leading when Tesla started building out the network; at the time, the fastest DC Fast charger you could find for CHAdeMO or CCS maxed out at just 50kW. But times change, and companies like ElectrifyAmerica and ChargePoint are rolling out new DC Fast chargers for these standards that are capable of recharging a car at much higher power—350kW in the case of ElectrifyAmerica and 500kW in the case of ChargePoint. Rather than be left behind, Tesla got busy developing its own solution. It's called the V3 Supercharger, and it can support up to 250kW per car, from a cabinet that's rated at 1MW. Tesla says that "[a]t this rate, a Model 3 Long Range operating at peak efficiency can recover up to 75 miles of charge in 5 minutes and charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour." Advertisement Additionally, the new design means that any Tesla plugging into it should be able to charge at the full 250kW; the current Superchargers often supply cars with much less than their maximum 120kW if the stalls are full as the chargers have to split the available power as we discovered in our recent Model 3 test. To make better use of the Supercharger network, Tesla says it will also update its cars with a new feature that begins to prewarm their batteries when they approach a Supercharger, similar to the prewarming that occurs in some models when you use Ludicrous mode. This, Tesla says, will reduce average charging times by 25 percent. The first beta V3 Supercharger location is now open in the Bay Area, and Tesla says it will break ground on the first proper North American V3 Supercharger location next month, ramping up later this year. We don't believe existing Supercharger sites will be upgraded, however. Instead, these V2 Superchargers will have new software that will boost them to 145kW. As Tesla's newest vehicle, the Model 3 is already designed to suck in juice from the more powerful V3 Superchargers. Owners of Models S and X will have to wait for software updates in the coming months before being able to benefit from these 250kW stations.<doc-sep>Tesla has debuted its V3 Superchargers, saying they could enable drivers to add up to 75 miles of charge to a long-range Model 3 in just five minutes. Elon Musk's company also said the same car could add 1,000 miles worth of charge in an hour under ideal conditions. The new Superchargers aren't available to most Tesla drivers now, just participants in the company's" early access program" who can drive to company's public beta site near its factory in Fremont, California. Tesla plans to roll out the V3 Superchargers in North America in the second quarter of 2019, and to sites in Europe and China in the fourth quarter. The V3 was unveiled at the Fremont plant Wednesday night. Tesla also boasted about the reach of its already-installed charging infrastructure, saying in a blog post: "Tesla has more than 12,000 Superchargers across North America, Europe, and Asia and our network continues to grow daily: more than 99% of the U.S. population is covered by the network, and we anticipate similar coverage in Europe by the end of 2019. Recently, we passed 90% population coverage in China and are growing that number quickly." The V3 Superchargers, which feature liquid-cooled cables, will allow drivers to fill up their virtual tanks, faster. But they will also allow Tesla to move more electric vehicles through their 12,000 charging sites every day — with most drivers paying each time they recharge. In September, Tesla ended a generous "unlimited charging" promotion that it previously offered as a referral bonus to get new customers into its premium Model S and Model X electric vehicles. WATCH: A visit to the only Tesla Supercharger station with a lounge<doc-sep>
Tesla is rolling out a third-generation Supercharger that is designed to dramatically cut charging times for its electric vehicles as it seeks to keep its edge over new competitors. The V3 Supercharger, which was unveiled Wednesday at the company’s Fremont, Calif. factory, supports a peak rate of up to 250 kilowatts on the long-range version of the Model 3. At this rate, the V3 can add up to 75 miles of range in 5 minutes, Tesla said. Improvements to charging times are critical for the company as it sells more Model 3 vehicles, its highest volume car. Wait times at some popular Supercharger stations can be lengthy. Early adopters might have been content to wait, but as new Tesla customers come online that patience could dwindle. Tesla says its improvements will allow the Supercharger network to serve more than twice as many vehicles per day at the end of 2019 compared with today. The V3 is not a retrofit of the company’s previous generations. It’s an architecture shift that includes a new 1 MW power cabinet, similar to the company’s utility-scale products, and a liquid-cooled cable design, which enables charge rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour. Tesla uses air-cooled cables on V2 Superchargers. The new power cabinet will provide a dedicated 250 kW to four Superchargers. This means that vehicles will no longer power share when charging. Tesla announced other improvements in a blog post, including ones aimed at improving charging rates for its Model S and Model X vehicles. When combined with the V3 Supercharger, the time spent charging is slashed by an average of 50 percent, Tesla said. A new software feature called “On Route Battery Warmup” will also be released for all vehicles. This update prepares the battery pack to accept that vehicle’s peak power for the longest possible time, reducing average charge time by 25 percent, the company said. Tesla plans to open thousands of V2 and V3 Superchargers in 2019. The V3 stations, which Tesla will begin installing in April, will be placed where there’s the highest use. Tesla has more than 12,000 Superchargers across North America, Europe and Asia, according to the company. Tesla plans to update its V2 Superchargers, as well, to provide a new peak charge rate of 145 kW for single-vehicle charging. Tesla will roll out V3 Supercharging to the wider fleet of vehicles — meaning beyond the long-range Model 3s — to all owners in the second quarter. The company plans to ramp up V3 installations in North America in the second and third quarters. The V3 installations will begin in Europe and Asia-Pacific in the fourth quarter.