Tesla has chosen London to receive the first batch of its new, faster V3 Superchargers outside of North America, which are expected to serve more than twice the number of customers per hour than V2 chargers.
Eight examples of the upgraded Superchargers have been introduced to its service centre in Park Royal, creating the company’s 500th Supercharger station in Europe. This new station also has eight V2 Superchargers, whose peak power has recently been increased by 30kW for a total of 150kW.
The V3 Superchargers generate a peak power of 250kW, which Tesla claims will allow a Model 3 to regain 75 miles of charge in five minutes. Charging rates of up to 1000 miles per hour are promised, while power sharing – where multiple cars share the same circuit – will be eliminated, thus no longer diminishing charging speeds.
The V3 has an entirely new architecture from the V2, with a 1MW power cabinet. Tesla estimates the new V3s will charge its vehicles twice as quickly as the previous version, dropping the time owners spend on charge to an average of 15 minutes.
This faster charge time is also enabled by a new feature called On-Route Battery Charging, which heats the batteries when travelling to a station, so that they are at ideal charging temperature on arrival.
The new Superchargers are compatible with all Tesla models. However, Model S and Model X owners will only benefit from the V3’s lack of power sharing at about the same peak rates as on V2 Superchargers. They also require a CCS adapter, which, though standard on all new Model S and Model X cars, must be purchased as an add-on for existing models.
Tesla intends to add further V3 Superchargers across Europe, simultaneously adding them in Asia. It recently started constructing its first V3 Supercharger station in China, located at Shanghai Jinqiao Tesla. This is scheduled to open next year.
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