Tesla Unveils V3 Superchargers That Can Add 75 Miles of Range in 5 Minutes

author: Eric Walz   

Electric automaker Tesla announced its next-generation Superchargers on Thursday. The company said the new Superchargers can add 75 miles of range to a Tesla Model 3 in just 5 minutes. The next-generation Supercharger can also charge more vehicles at the same time.

"In order to drive continued electric vehicle adoption and further accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, 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." Tesla wrote in a blog post.

The improved V3 Superchargers are faster too. Tesla said they will ultimately cut the amount of time customers spend charging by an average of 50 percent, based on fleet data collected by Tesla. The company is hoping to reduce wait times, by being able to charge more vehicles in a shorter period of time. Tesla aims to serve more than twice the number of drivers per hour.

Tesla said it completely redesigned the electrical architecture of the V3 Superchargers. Each cabinet is more powerful, providing 1 megawatt (MW), which is the same power in Tesla's utility products–powerful enough to power a building.

According to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, in 2017, the average residential electricity customer in the Northwest U.S. used about 11 megawatt-hours per year. So on average Tesla's new 1 MW Supercharger provides enough to power 796 northwest homes for an entire year.

The 1MW Superchargers support peak rates of up to 250 kW per car.

Tesla said that this rate of charging current, 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 (of range) per hour."

Tesla said its new V3 Supercharger stations are designed to enable any owner to charge at the maximum rate the vehicle can accept. Meaning power is not reduced if someone is parked next you using the same EV charger. Tesla anticipates the typical charging time at a V3 Supercharger will take around 15 minutes.

New EV Battery Warm Up Feature

Tesla also announced its rolling out a new battery warm-up feature for its vehicles. Tesla calls it "On Route Battery Warmup".  With this new feature, Tesla is addressing some battery chemistry problems with lithium ion EV battery packs, since EV batteries charge faster when they are warmed up.

The system works by intelligently heating the battery to ensure it's at the optimal temperature for charging by the time a driver arrives at a Supercharger. Tesla said it should reduce average charging times for owners by 25 percent.

Tesla said it's unlocking 145kW charge rates at is 12,000 V2 Supercharger locations in the coming weeks.

Tesla has more than 12,000 Superchargers across North America, Europe, and Asia. More than 99 percent of the U.S. population is covered by the network. The automaker hopes to have the saem coverage in Europe by the end of this year.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.