The First of Tesla's China-made V3 Superchargers is Now Online in Shenzhen

author: Eric Walz   

Earlier this year, electric carmaker Tesla Inc. filed paperwork in China to expand its Shanghai factory to build facilities for recycling battery cells and other electric vehicle components such as electric motors, according to a document submitted by the company to authorities in Shanghai.

Tesla also added a factory to make EV chargers in Shanghai last year, to expand its charging network in China. Now the first of these China-built V3 Superchargers is online in Shenzhen, Chinese news outlet Gasgoo reports. The V3 Supercharger went online on May 20.

The newly-launched V3 Superchargers in China will be built at Tesla's supercharger manufacturing factory in Shanghai, which started production on Feb 3 of this year, according to Gasgoo.

The 54,000 square foot factory has an annual capacity of 10,000 Superchargers at this initial stage, mainly for the more powerful V3 chargers. Tesla invested 420 million yuan (US$65.2 million) in the new facility.

Before the Shanghai factory was built, all of Tesla's superchargers deployed in China were imported from the U.S. The chargers were first built at Tesla's Fremont, California factory where it builds all of its U.S. vehicles. However the automaker moved Supercharger production to its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, where it also manufactures solar roof tiles for Tesla's solar business.

Tesla first announced its next-generation V3 Superchargers in March 2019. At the time, the company said the more powerful Superchargers can add 75 miles of range to a Model 3 sedan in just 5 minutes. 

Tesla's next-generation V3 Superchargers can also charge more vehicles at the same time. Tesla said the V3 Superchargers will ultimately cut the amount of time customers spend charging their vehicles by an average of 50%, based on fleet data collected by the company. 

Tesla said its V3 Superchargers support a peak charge rate of up to 250kW, which is more than double the output of the V2 Superchargers which deliver charge rates of 120kW. 

"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.

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, which is enough to power a building.

When the Shanghai Supercharger factory began production in February, Tesla had already opened more than 730 supercharging stations in over 300 cities throughout China. 

Last year in China, Tesla installed 410 supercharging stations, 180 of them were the new V3 Superchargers.

Tesla is also working to expand its charging network in Europe. With Tesla's new factory under construction near Berlin, the California company is aiming to sell more electric vehicles in Europe, so Tesla owners will need access to convenient charging.

In March, Tesla charging network in China grew to 6,000 Superchargers, with more to come.

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.