Tesla Launches V3 Superchargers To Fill Up Your Model 3 At 250 kW, 75 Miles In Just 5 Mins
So, what does this actually mean for customers in the real world? According to Tesla, a Model 3 Long Range can now get a 75-mile boost in range in just 5 minutes, which the company is wildly claiming translates into a charge rate of 1,000 miles per hour. More importantly, the company says that the amount of time that Tesla owners will spend sitting a Supercharger station waiting to top off will be reduced by roughly 50 percent to around 15 minutes.
And unlike the V2 Superchargers, which can only hit their 120 kW peak with just a single vehicle attached to a stall due to power splitting, V3 Superchargers can supply the full 250 kW even if there is another Tesla vehicle sharing the stall next to you. In addition, Tesla also revealed that its existing V2 superchargers will all be “unlocked” to support 145 kW charging rates in the “coming weeks.”
And to further reduce charge times, Tesla has also announced a new battery warming feature that will be delivered OTA this week. “Tesla is rolling out a new feature called On-Route Battery Warmup,” the company writes. “Now, whenever you navigate to a Supercharger station, your vehicle will intelligently heat the battery to ensure you arrive at the optimal temperature to charge, reducing average charge times for owners by 25%.”
We should mention that Tesla is rolling out V3 Supercharging first for its newest vehicle, the Model 3. It will initially only be available to customers in the Early Access Program “beta test” in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first publicly-accessible V3 Superchargers will be available in Q2 with further ramps in Q3 for North America.
For those with the older Model S or Model X, Tesla hasn’t forgotten about you. The company says that an OTA firmware update to unlock 250 kW charging will be delivered “in the coming months.”