As the Verge reports: Tesla stations and supercharger going V3. For it unveiled the first V3 Supercharger stations at its Fremont, California factory just a few months ago. However, the company is already making progress on the first concentrated build out. I mean we are talking Tesla third generation Supercharger charging stations.
That’s because 26 of the 46 charging stations currently being built along the transcontinental Trans-Canada Highway. They are V3 chargers, Tesla told The Verge.
All the while Car and Driver adds that Tesla tweeted that it will offer free unlimited Supercharging credits for new Model S and Model X buyers. The company had previously offered free unlimited supercharging a few years ago, then reduced that number to 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity credits each year for Model S and Model X orders; that policy ended for orders placed after November 2, 2018.
So the new free unlimited credits apply for orders placed starting August 3. Tesla claims it has 1604 Supercharger stations globally.
The new V3 chargers are capable of charging some Model 3s at rates of up to 250kW, making it possible to gain 75 miles of range in just five minutes. So far, the company has opened just a few other V3 Supercharging stations (including one in Las Vegas) beyond the original one at the Fremont plant.
The news comes as Tesla celebrates the seven-year anniversary of the first Supercharger stations this week. In the time since the company lit up those first fast chargers back in 2012.
So Tesla has gone on to build out one of the biggest networks of EV chargers in the world. We are talking 14,081 Superchargers. Most importantly that’s across 1,604 stations in 36 countries!
However as The Verge added there is no doubt of Tesla’s charging network. It has grown quickly in recent years. Because it’s also worth remembering Musk has a history of over-promising. Especially on exact expansion rates.
Yet as EV site Electrek notes, Tesla originally wanted to have 18,000 V3 Superchargers up and running by the end of 2018. However it currently falls well short of that goal with 11,853 chargers online. (It also missed a similar target in 2017, though by less of a margin.)
Now I’m not mad! Things happen along the way but common folks!!
A follow-up tweet from Musk suggested charging stations would also be coming to Africa by 2020, though it’s not clear in what numbers.
(Tesla currently has zero Superchargers in Africa and according to its coverage map none are “coming soon.”)
My Take on It?
There will be more Superchargers always needed to expand markets. Especially into new markets (not early adopters).
It costs a lot of money to have Superchargers available and nearby. However the sales it inspires drives consumer confidence.
To expand the scope of size of these V3 supercharger charging stations gets consumers confidence going and more importantly: more sales.
