Tesla Supercharger Upgrades Announced – CleanTechnica

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The Tesla Supercharger group — what’s left of it — has announced 4 enhancements to the charging expertise. Among the many enhancements are the areas, the size of the charging cables, and upgrades to the charging software program in Tesla autos. In its Q3 earnings report, Tesla mentioned it had put in 6,706 Supercharger charging factors for a complete of 62,421 world wide. That’s 20 p.c extra Supercharger areas and 22 p.c extra charging factors than in Q3 of 2023. Tesla Superchargers are thought-about the gold customary within the trade due to their confirmed reliability. In comparison with the charging factors out there from different charging networks, Tesla Superchargers are likely to work as anticipated the overwhelming majority of the time, and when one does fail, it’s repaired or changed shortly by competent restore personnel.

Nonetheless, there have been some points which have arisen for the reason that Supercharger community was opened up to other drivers and car companies. Electrical vehicles from different producers do not always have the charging port on the left rear nook, and so these non-Tesla autos typically block charging stations as a result of the brief Supercharger cables received’t attain the charging ports of these vehicles. Though the brand new V4 technology already has longer cables, these charging factors are nonetheless uncommon. That’s set to alter quickly, the Supercharger group says. “Longer cables mean that V4 posts can serve all port locations. In the next 18 months we will have more long cable than short cable Superchargers,” it wrote in a submit on social media.

As an alternative, the group states that the areas can be tailored — or have already been tailored in some instances — to keep away from or cut back the variety of occasions an out there Supercharger charging level is blocked. “We have modified over 1,500 sites so that drivers never have to use more than 2 charging spaces to charge, increasing stall availability for all.” One other measure is meant to enhance the charging expertise. Though, its influence is tough to evaluate, because it relies on what different automobile producers do. “Since opening up the Supercharger network in Europe in 2021, we’ve encouraged car manufacturers to transition charge port locations to rear left or front right,” says Tesla. “This provides seamless compatibility with 30,000+ short cable Superchargers available to other EVs globally.”

Improved Charging Expertise At Tesla Supercharger Areas

Charging planning may also be improved, particularly in reference to third social gathering manufacturers. With the most recent software program replace, Tesla says it could possibly “detect when another EV with a charge port located somewhere other than the rear left or front right, is plugged into a short cable Supercharger stall.” Which means the automobile can not cost on the Supercharger column supposed for the parking house, thus successfully blocking two charging columns. One instance can be the MEB electrical vehicles from VW, which have the charging connection on the rear proper. They’ll solely use the Superchargers with a brief cable that really belongs to the adjoining parking house, which implies that two Superchargers are in reality occupied however one is displayed on the Tesla app as being out there. “This update ensures no more over-promising of stall availability, so you can travel with confidence,” Tesla says. “We will continuously refine this algorithm to be as accurate as possible, including exact site mapping and faster refreshing of stall availability.”

One other enchancment that Tesla has launched in latest weeks isn’t talked about within the present announcement. V4 Superchargers at the moment are additionally out there with V4 cupboards which allow charging at as much as 500 kW of energy — equal to probably the most highly effective DC charging tools at the moment out there. The primary V4 Superchargers have been in operation since final spring in Harderwijk within the Netherlands. The V4 technology is characterised by the upper charging columns and an extended charging cable, which — in a primary for Tesla —  is connected to the surface of the charging column. The longer cable ought to make it simpler for third social gathering EVs which have a standardized charging port on the rear left to plug in. The cost terminal that non-Tesla drivers will use to pay for his or her charging session may also be simply accessible.

Nonetheless, as with the V3 Superchargers, the utmost charging energy will stay at 250 kW, as a result of the V4 Posts, as Tesla calls its charging factors, are nonetheless mixed with swap cupboards (or cupboards, as Tesla calls them) from the V3 technology. The bottleneck is subsequently not the charger however the management cupboard within the background. That shouldn’t be a lot of a problem, since there are few electrical vehicles available on the market that may settle for 500 kW of energy. The most recent EVs from GM — the Chevy Equinox EV and Blazer EV — are solely able to accepting round 175 kW — an enormous enchancment from the Chevy Bolt however far under what many EVs from different producers are able to.

Charging Energy Varies By Automobile

The Tesla Semi electrical Class 8 tractor will have the ability to settle for as much as 1.2 MW of  energy, Malte Kendel, the licensed consultant and supervisor for EV Charging at Tesla, wrote on LinkedIn not too long ago. The Cybertruck, the primary Tesla constructed on an 800-volt platform, is anticipated to realize 30 p.c shorter charging occasions with a V4 charging level in comparison with a V3 or decrease spec unit. The opposite Tesla passenger vehicles — Mannequin S, Mannequin X, Mannequin 3, and Mannequin Y — are solely capable of settle for a most of 250 kW of charging energy.

A V4 cupboard provides as much as eight stalls with energy, in comparison with 4 stalls per management cupboard for the V3 technology. Tesla will thus want fewer management cupboards for a charging park of the identical dimension sooner or later. Based on Kendel, the V4 cupboards require much less house and are much less advanced, which is able to assist the corporate to finish new charging parks extra shortly. They may also have thrice the power density, and the ability electronics can be “designed to be the most reliable on the planet” and can allow a better throughput at decrease prices.

Nonetheless, it won’t be doable to cost eight autos concurrently with 500 kW. Tesla has set the related load decrease for financial causes. “Posts can peak up to 500 kW for cars, but we need less than 1MW across 8 posts to deliver maximum power to cars 99% of the time,” writes Max de Zegher, who has been a part of Tesla’s Supercharger group nearly constantly since 2014, in a submit on social media. In different phrases, solely in a single per cent of instances does a automobile obtain much less charging energy than it may use itself.

In his submit, De Zegher additionally mentions the “small incremental improvements” that ought to be noticeable. “The V4 Cabinet has a 2% efficiency improvement. Superchargers already deliver over 5 TWh/year; 100 GWh/year in waste heat that can be saved.” Based on Kendel, the primary Supercharger websites with V4 cupboards are resulting from open in 2025.