Early photos of Tesla's new Supercharger suggest it fixes a common complaint for non-Tesla EV owners
Courtesy of Esther Kokkelmans, @EstherKokkelman on Twitter
- Tesla opened its newest version of its Supercharger in Europe this week.
- The new chargers appear to solve a common Supercharger complaint for non-Tesla EV owners: cable length.
- The electric-car maker said it plans to open the V4 Supercharger station to non-Tesla's "soon."
Tesla opened its newest version of its Superchargers in Europe earlier this week and it looks like they could eliminate a major charging headache for owners of non-Tesla electric vehicles.
On Wednesday, the electric-car maker announced it had opened its V4 Superchargers in Harderwijk in the Netherlands. The company gave few details on the new station, but said the chargers are currently only open to Tesla vehicles and will "soon welcome all EVs at this site." It is unclear when the company will begin rolling out the new Superchargers in the US.
Last month, Tesla began opening select Supercharger stations to non-Tesla EV drivers in the US, but some of the first non-Tesla owners to use the network were quick to identify paint points with the system. Complaints included that the cords were not long enough to stretch to the charging port location on their vehicles, as well as a charging system that was not optimized for non-Teslas to charge at full speed.
Now, Tesla appears to have begun solving for both issues with the V4 Superchargers. Steven Bink, a Model S owner from the Netherlands, said on Twitter that the cables for the new chargers appear to be about 3 meters, or over 9.8 feet long. The V3 Superchargers had a cable length of roughly 6 to 6.5 feet, according to Teslarati.
That extra cable length will help accommodate the range of locations for charging ports on non-Tesla vehicles, as some electric vehicle owners previously were parking across multiple spots in order to position their charging port close enough to reach a Supercharger.
—Steven Bink???? (@sbink) March 15, 2023
The company didn't release any information regarding expected charging speeds for the new Superchargers, but V3 Superchargers are currently capped at a 250kW, which equates to a charge rate of about 1,000 miles per hour. According to pictures from Bink, the newer Supercharger has the same output rate of 250 kW, but a higher electrical current.
The higher amperage could allow for the systems to charge non-Tesla EVs, as well as newer Teslas, at a faster rate, per Teslarati. Though, Bink told Insider he wasn't able to experience a faster charge rate because he had a 2018 model.
—Steven Bink???? (@sbink) March 15, 2023
Bink was one of several Tesla owners to take to social media to post pictures and videos of the new charging site. Model S owner, Esther Kokkelmans also shared a video of her charging experience.
—Esther Kokkelmans (@EstherKokkelman) March 16, 2023