New Tesla Supercharger goes live in UK, can add 75 miles in just five minutes
New Park Royal Supercharger station marks 500th in Europe
TESLA has launched its first ‘V3’ Superchargers in the UK, offering British owners of its electric cars the ability to recharge their vehicles at up to 250kW — equal to 75 miles of range added every five minutes, or a rate of 1,000 miles per hour.
The batch of eight V3 points are located at Tesla’s new Park Royal charging station in London, and sit next to a further eight V2 Superchargers, which, with a peak output of 150kW, are still pretty quick as public charging points go.
However, the V3 posts have all-new architecture that is not only capable of delivering more kilowatts to the battery packs per second, but also won’t split the power supply between vehicles charging nearby, allowing owners to charge at the maximum power their battery can take.
New software in the cars will also pre-warm the batteries while en route to a Supercharger, which is claimed to reduce average charge times by 25% by ensure they are already at the optimal temperature to receive an ultra-fast charge on arrival.
With Tesla claiming customers at V3 Superchargers are able to recharge in half the time, it said more than twice the number of customers are expected to be served per hour, with the typical stay at a V3 Supercharger dropping to around 15 minutes.
The new European chargers use a CCS connector, which is the standard on Tesla Model 3 vehicles but owners of Model X SUVs and Model S saloon cars will need an adaptor to plug in, and the chargers will only supply power to X and S cars at the maximum rate allowed by the vehicle. Tesla says the adaptor comes as standard with all new vehicles, and is available to existing owners “at a limited cost”.
The new Park Royal Supercharger station is the 500th to be built in Europe, and takes the number of individual Tesla charging posts to 4,700 across 24 countries throughout the continent.
Announcing the milestone, Tesla said: “When we opened the first European station in Norway in 2013, driving across multiple countries in a fully electric car was inconceivable and seen as a unique accomplishment. With the Supercharger network, long distance EV travel has become the new normal. Every day, thousands of Tesla owners undertake a road trip through Europe and stop at Supercharger stations.
“In just six years, we have increased the average size of our Supercharger stations to reflect the growing size of our customer base. This included expanding and opening large stations, like Eidsvoll Verk, Nebbenes in Norway, which is the biggest European station with 44 stalls.”
It added: “We are excited to continue to build the most extensive and advanced network in Europe while keeping the charging experience as affordable and convenient as possible for all our customers.”
New Tesla Superchargers add 75 miles of range in five minutes
