Tesla announces an increase in charging power at its V4 Superchargers, up to 500 kW

In spring 2023, with the opening of the first V4 Supercharger station in Harderwijk, Netherlands, Tesla began rolling out its new charging technology, promising a significant reduction in charging time throughout the process. However, until now these V4 Superchargers have been maintaining the same 250 kW limit as the previous V3 generation.

This has been the case because, although the new V4 charging points that the North American manufacturer has been installing are completely new—characterised by their greater height and by having a longer charging cable to make it easier to charge vehicles from other brands—the control cabinets with all the electrical infrastructure needed to deliver higher charging power remained the same as those found in the V3 stations.

This problem is now resolved following the company’s announcement of the launch of new V4 control cabinets, with which it will be possible to increase charging power up to 500 kW for passenger electric vehicles, and up to 1.2 MW in the case of the brand’s Semi electric truck.

According to the company, this increase in power will reduce charging times for the Cybertruck, the first vehicle from Tesla with an 800-volt architecture, by 30 per cent. The rest of the manufacturer’s models will, however, keep the same maximum charging power of 250 kW, as they do not have an 800 V architecture like the Cybertruck. We will therefore have to wait for future updates to these models.

Other important improvements worth highlighting

In addition to the increase in charging power, these new control cabinets for V4 Supercharger stations are capable of powering a greater number of Superchargers than the previous generation, up to eight, double that of the V3. This is an important advance that will allow Tesla to open much larger charging stations using less infrastructure. Complexity will be lower, and the space needed to install these control cabinets will also be reduced, thus facilitating the construction and deployment of new stations.

Additionally, Tesla states that these control cabinets offer three times the energy density and are designed to be extremely reliable, allowing higher performance at a lower cost.

It should be noted, however, that eight vehicles are not expected to be able to charge simultaneously at 500 kW due to economic considerations. According to Max de Zegher, a member of the Supercharger team at Tesla, charging has been optimised so that in only 1 per cent of charging sessions would a vehicle receive less power than it could handle. In this sense, given that today only the Cybertruck could charge at those 500 kW, it does not seem very likely that all eight charging points would be occupied specifically by units of the manufacturer’s electric pickup, with no other unit charging from the Model S, Model X, Model Y or Model 3.

Following the company’s announcement of these new control cabinets for V4 Supercharger stations, installation is expected to begin early next year. Only then, and not before, will user tests reveal whether Tesla’s promises materialise in the real world or not.