Tesla Executive Hints Like the Cybertruck, Model 3 & Other Tesla Vehicles Could Get 350KW V4 Supercharging, Says – “Very Fast Charging, People Will Top Off As They Do at a Gas Station”

For many years, Tesla vehicles were the undisputed leaders when it came to charging speed. Teslas were the first commercially available vehicles to charge at 150KW back in 2012.

In addition to fast charging, Tesla for many years had the only widely available fast charging network in the world.

These 2 points added together have led to Tesla being able to sell millions of vehicles more than any of its closest competitors.

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Tesla’s lead in the supercharging front, although there are now numerous 3rd party charging networks, is still largely protected due to its sheer size and reliability.

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Tesla’s 50,000 superchargers worldwide have a 99.96% uptime compared to other charging networks which average around 80% uptime. To put these numbers into perspective, it means one every 5 times you go to charge at a third-party charging station, you will find a stall not working.

Whereas, for Tesla, this number is one out of 250 times you go to a supercharger you will find it not working. Again putting it in other terms, the supercharger network is 50 times more reliable than other charging networks.

With this kind of lead, Tesla doesn’t have anything to worry about when it comes to fast-charger competition. However, the story gets a bit murky when we look at the vehicle side of the fast-charging story.

As I have already mentioned, at the start of the last decade, Tesla vehicles were the fastest-charging cars in the world. However, fast forward a few years and there are now several vehicles that can charge quicker than Teslas.

All Tesla vehicles are currently capped at 250KW charging speeds. There are, however, vehicles from GM, Lucid, and other brands that can take as much as 350KW. Electrify America and Ionity fast-chargers can charge these vehicles at their peak 350KW.

This is a major blow for Tesla however, the 250KW limit for Tesla vehicles appears to be set by not the vehicles themselves but rather by the current generation Version 3 (V3) superchargers.

Fortunately, Tesla has already started rolling out V4 superchargers across the world. Tesla’s Head of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy has already confirmed that the Cybertruck can take 350KW using V4 superchargers which can charge the truck from 15% to 85% in about 18 minutes.

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This is great news, however, Lars has let slip an even more impressive charging capability for Tesla’s other vehicles, specifically the Model 3. During his latest appearance on Jay Leno’s Garage, Moravy was discussing fast charging with the retired comedian.

Lars reiterated that the Cybertruck will be capable of 350KW charging at a V4 supercharger and in response to a question about DC charging continued to say…

“I mentioned with V4 superchargers, you can get up to 350 kilowatts and as we get efficiency better, the batteries get smaller while giving more range. The lowest model 3 battery pack is about 60KWh, so you charge that pack at 350KW, if we can get the power in 350 KW, you're talking very fast charging to the point where people just top off as they do at a gas station.”

We already know the Cybertruck has a 123KWh battery pack and the Model 3 has less than half the size battery pack at 60KWh. If Tesla is able to charge the Model 3 at 350KW similar to the Cybertruck then it’ll be able to charge in half as much time as the truck.

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We already know using V4 superchargers the Cybertruck can charge from 15% to 85% in 18 minutes and for the Model 3 at a V4 supercharger, this number gets cut down by half, which means, the Model 3 will be able to charge from 15% to 85% in just 9 minutes.

9 minutes to top up 200 miles is getting dangerously close to internal combustion vehicles. If Tesla is able to achieve this feat then the last advantage to buying a gas car will disappear.

At this point, you might be asking whether charging at these high speeds will damage the Model 3’s battery pack long-term. Lucky for us, Jay Leno has put forth this question to Tesla’s Head of Engineering.

In response Lars says… 

“It's really about thermal management and managing the plating. If you're charging a battery that's not cooled [damaging the battery] may be true because it gets hot and when it gets hot, the lithium ions can flow faster and there's more likelihood of them plating to the anode or the cathode side but, when we're charging a battery, we're cooling it. We're monitoring its temperature, so we're keeping it at an optimal temperature so it doesn't affect the longevity.”

This is wonderful to hear. Sadly at this point, Lars hasn’t given us any timeline as to when we can expect to see a Model 3 that can charge at 350KW on the roads.

Also naturally we would assume if the Model 3 is getting a charging speed bump to 350KW so would other Tesla vehicles such as the Model S, Model X, and Model Y, however, it would still be nice to get a confirmation from Tesla that that’s the case.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted as we learn more about Tesla’s plans. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Are you excited to see that Tesla’s other vehicles will get a charging speed bump to 350KW? If you can top up 200 miles in 9 minutes, is there any reason left to buy a gas vehicle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla, inc.

For more information check out: Jay Leno Takes Tesla Cybertruck on 1st Off-Roading Test, Says the Truck Handles Rock Crawling & Water Fording “Like it’s Nothing”

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.