Now that all carmakers have accepted Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), there’s a tad more pressure on Elon Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) company to deliver reliable and user-friendly charging solutions.
But Tesla’s Supercharger network is already a leader in that respect, and it just released its latest fast-charging cabinets, providing significantly more power, thus reducing charging times while on the road. There’s also good news for the Tesla Semi, which should help move the needle in heavy electric transportation.
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Tesla Supercharger Stalls Can Now Push Up To 500 kW
The biggest news from the Supercharger update is the addition of the all-new V4 cabinet, which distributes the energy to eight stalls (charging stations). The biggest takeaway here is that V4 can now push up to a whopping 1,000 volts, allowing up to 30% faster charging for vehicles equipped with 800-plus volt systems, like the Tesla Cybertruck and the Lucid Air. For reference, past Supercharger cabinets were limited to 500V.
But the most impressive figure is the charging rate itself. Up until now, Tesla Superchargers were limited to 250 kW, which was dwarfed by Electrify America’s 350-kW units. Now, thanks to the new V4 cabinets, Tesla can pump up to 500 kW of fast-charging into an EV, a number never before seen.
Tesla Semi Can Fast Charge At More Than 1,000 kW
As if this wasn’t game-changing enough, Tesla surprised everyone with the news that its V4 cabinet will have the ability to fast-charge the Tesla Semi at a mind-blowing rate of 1,200 kW, or 1.2 MW, marking the first ever publicly deployed 1 Megawatt fast charging station.
On X, Max de Zegher, Tesla’s North-American Director of Charging said that the V4 cabinet eliminates the necessity for DC busbars between cabinets. Power now comes from a single V4 cabinet. Tesla underlines the fact this setup is not only easier to install, but also cheaper and more reliable.
The V4 cabinet is also 2% more efficient and has a smaller footprint, all while releasing considerably more power. Tesla says that its all-new V4 cabinets are currently in the permitting process. The first stations will open next year.
