Tesla unleashes 500 kW V4 Superchargers, but not everyone gets the speed boost
The quiet contest for the fastest electric car charger in America just got a new entry. Tesla has officially activated its first ultra-fast V4 Supercharger station in Redwood City, California, armed with new power cabinets that can deliver 500 kW of power. They promise to cut down on wait times and make long-distance travel in electric cars even more convenient.
Tesla's Supercharger network is the gold standard for reliability and size, but its speed has always been capped at 250 kW. Competitors like Electrify America and Ionna have been rolling out stations capable of 350 kW or more. With this V4 upgrade, Tesla is once more setting a new benchmark. The new hardware is designed to drastically reduce charging stops, but there's a catch: not every Tesla driver will benefit from the new speeds, at least not right away.
The primary beneficiary of this power surge is the Tesla Cybertruck. Thanks to its advanced 800-volt electrical architecture, the Cybertruck is one of the few vehicles on the road that can handle such high charging speeds. Owners can expect their charging sessions to be roughly 30% faster than at the older 250 kW stations.
For the vast majority of Tesla owners driving a Model S, Model 3, Model X, or Model Y, things will feel exactly the same. These EVs use a 400-volt architecture, which physically limits their maximum charging speed to 250 kW. That's still impressively fast - adding about 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes is nothing to sneeze at.
The secret to this new speed lies in what the new V4 power cabinets are connected to. Tesla was installing the new V4 stalls for a while, but was hooking them up to older V3 cabinets, which kept the power output limited.
The Redwood City station is the first to pair the new stalls with the powerful V4 cabinets, unlocking their full potential. These cabinets are engineered for the future, supporting vehicle architectures from 400 volts all the way up to 1,000 volts, and can even supply an incredible 1.2 megawatts for the massive Tesla Semi truck.
The new 500 kW stations are currently restricted to Tesla vehicles, but the company has announced that support for non-Tesla EVs is coming. Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, after final engineering checks are complete, drivers of vehicles like the Hyundai Ioniq 9 or Lucid Gravity, which also use 800-volt systems, will be able to plug in and take advantage of these ultra-fast speeds.
Since more automakers build electric cars that can take advantage of faster charging, the availability of 500 kW stations is becoming crucial for reducing charger congestion. The V4 rollout has just started, but Tesla's track record of quickly expanding its network suggests that these ultra-fast chargers could become a common sight a lot sooner than expected.
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