Tesla Launches its New V3 Superchargers in Berlin, With More to Come

author: FutureCar Staff    

Managers at electric automaker Tesla demonstrated new V3 supercharger equipment on a Berlin research campus on Thursday and managers at Tesla said the company was looking at more target cities to attract potential buyers in Germany worried about access to EV charging.

With Tesla's new factory under construction in Germany, the California company is aiming to sell more electric vehicles in Germany as well as the rest of Europe, so Tesla is working to expand its charging network, including faster EV charging sites, which can charge a Tesla vehicle in under 20 minutes. 

Tesla unveiled its new V3 Superchargers early last year. The more powerful chargers can add 75 miles (120 km) of range to a Model 3 sedan in five minutes. Tesla anticipates the typical total charging session at a V3 Supercharger will take around 15 minutes. The next-generation chargers can also charge more vehicles at the same time.

Tesla said it completely redesigned the electrical architecture of the V3 Superchargers. Each cabinet is more powerful, providing 1 megawatt (MW) of power, which is the same as Tesla's utility products and enough to power a building. The 1MW Superchargers support peak rates of up to 250 kW per car.

"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 when the V3 Superchargers were unveiled in March 2019.

A Tesla company spokesman told reporters Tesla would open at least one more inner-city fast charging site in Germany this year, and possibly more. 

However, the spokesman stressed that Tesla still believes that slower residential and workplace charging will be the primary way Tesla owners charge their vehicles, but the automaker wants to offer a faster option.

"Now, as part of our commitment to make Tesla ownership easy and convenient for everyone including those without immediate access to home or workplace charging, we are expanding our supercharging network into city centres," Jeroen van Tilburg, manager Europe of charging infrastructure at Tesla, told Reuters.

Older Tesla models that currently don't support the faster charging rates will receive software upgrades.

German policymakers are looking to aim to boost demand for electric cars to cut emissions as part of the European Union's (EU) goal to cut greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming.

The EU has put in place legislation to reduce emissions by at least 40% over the next decade as part of the EU's 2030 climate and energy framework and contribution to the Paris Agreement.

Germany submitted its own ten-year energy and climate plan to the European Union in June. The plan, which was adopted by the German government on June 10 six months past its due date, contains its national goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.

A more widespread adoption of electric vehicles will help Germany to meet its goals, given that sufficient EV charging infrastructure is in place.

"We have a lot to make up for in terms of charging infrastructure," said Germany's Economy Minister Peter Altmaier at the event at Germany's EUREF-Campus.

Altmaier pledged to speed the roll-out of public charging points and permits for private charging which had hampered sales in the past.

Tesla's new factory on the outskirts of Berlin is due to start operating next year. The company said the Berlin-Brandenburg factory will be the most advanced high-volume electric vehicle production plant in the world. 

Once construction is completed, the first vehicle produced will be the Model Y crossover.

FutureCar Staff