ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Tesla Supercharger is a high-voltage direct current (DC) fast-charging network built by American vehicle manufacturer Tesla, Inc. for electric cars.

The Supercharger network was introduced on September 24, 2012, as the Tesla Model S entered production, with six sites in California, Nevada and Arizona. , Tesla operates a network of 5,500 Supercharger stations with 50,000 connectors. The stations are primarily deployed in three regions: Asia Pacific (over 2,000), North America (over 2,000) and Europe (over 1,000). Superchargers supply electrical power at 72 kilowatts (kW), 100 kW, 150 kW or 250 kW, with the maximum amount increasing over the years as the company improves its technology.

Usage is typically billed by the energy consumed during charging. In jurisdictions that prohibit billing by consumption, customers are instead billed by time spent charging. As a promotion, Tesla has offered to customers free supercharging for the life of the car or charging credits. Idle fees may be charged to customers who remain plugged in after charging has been completed to discourage loitering.

Technology

Tesla typically places Superchargers near major highways at locations with amenities for drivers such as restrooms, restaurants and shopping. Many stations also have solar canopies installed by Tesla Energy to offset energy use and provide drivers with protection from the elements.

When connected to a Supercharger, the alternating current (AC) to DC charger onboard the car is bypassed, and instead a much larger external charger is used, delivering high-power DC voltage directly into the vehicle.

When a vehicle is plugged in, a pin in the vehicle locks the connector in place and a controller in the vehicle begins communicating with a controller in the charge post through one of the wires in the cable, called the control pilot. A series of tests take place as power begins flowing to the vehicle. If the tests pass, the vehicle's onboard controller requests that the charge post controller increase the flow of electricity to match the optimal level needed for charging the battery at its present state of charge, and charging begins. During the entire process, the two controllers remain in communication to adjust the flow of electricity to remain at the optimal level. When a button on the connector is held down, or a command is given by another method, the flow of electricity stops, and the lock is disengaged to allow removal.

Tesla uses a "plug and charge" system where the vehicle is identified when plugged in and the cost of charging is deducted from the payment method associated with the vehicle.

The original V1 and V2 Tesla supercharging stations were built with a single charger equipment cabinet shared between two charge posts. Because of this arrangement, if two cars are connected, and both request the maximum power available (100 kW for V1 and 150 kW for V2), the charger will only deliver half the maximum power.

As an alternative to the Supercharger, in 2015, Tesla briefly implemented a battery swapping station at Harris Ranch in California. The Tesla battery station performed few swaps, with most Tesla owners preferring to recharge their vehicles' batteries instead.

"Urban" Supercharger posts were introduced in September 2017. These more compact posts have a maximum power delivery of 72kW but do not share equipment with other posts, allowing the maximum power to be delivered. These more compact posts are primarily deployed in urban areas such as shopping mall parking lots and garages.

V3 stations were introduced in 2019 and were capable of delivering up to 250 kW. For V3 stations, four posts share a 1,000 kW charger equipment cabinet, allowing each to deliver the maximum power regardless of nearby charging sessions. The V3 charge posts use a liquid-cooled cable which allows the cable to be thinner and lighter while delivering more power.

Tesla introduced mobile Supercharger stations in 2019 with several urban supercharger posts and a Tesla Megapack energy storage system mounted on a semi-trailer truck. These stations provide temporary stations for nearby events, expand capacity during peak travel seasons, or can be deployed when a station needs to be taken offline. The Megapack has the capacity to charge up to 100 vehicles before being depleted.

V4 stations began to roll out in early 2023 and have longer cables for charging vehicles from other automakers. They are also capable of supporting up to 615 kW of power delivery; however, they are currently software limited to 250 kW. The charging posts have a credit card reader allowing non-Tesla owners to charge without downloading the Tesla app. The lack of a credit card reader in earlier Supercharger versions has prevented Tesla from receiving some government subsidies for fast-charger installation.

Connectors and interoperability

Tesla's first Superchargers opened in 2012 in the United States, where the company used its own proprietary charging connector, later renamed the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Unique among other charging standards, the same pin layout is used for AC charging and DC fast charging, resulting in a smaller connector, compared to the competing CCS (combined charging standard) connector used in North America.

Tesla indicated on multiple occasions that they were interested in having other auto manufacturers use their proprietary connector, but none did until the company published its NACS specifications in November 2022 and began the process of standardizing its connector with SAE. Since then, BMW Group, Fisker, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Group, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Polestar, Rivian, Toyota and Volvo Cars have announced that starting in 2025, their electric vehicles in North America will be equipped with the NACS charge port, enabling Supercharger use.

As a stopgap, Tesla began installing a "Magic Dock" at some locations in February 2023. The dock holds a NACS to CCS adapter. When a NACS-equipped vehicle driver uses the charger, they remove the NACS connector from the docked adapter. When a CCS-equipped vehicle driver reserves a charger via the Tesla mobile app, the Magic Dock releases the NACS to CCS adapter. The "magic" is that the adapter always remains captive – either locked in the dock on the charger (when the NACS connector is available to be used) or locked onto the NACS connector (when the CCS adapter is available to be used). The "Magic Dock" will allow Tesla to share in the $7.5 billion U.S. federal government incentives to build out CCS-equipped charging infrastructure.

In Europe, Tesla initially equipped its vehicles with the standardized IEC 62196 Type 2 connector and, like they had done in North America, Tesla enabled DC fast charging at Superchargers by reusing two of the pins for DC power. However, in November 2018, under pressure from European regulators, Tesla announced that it would begin using the CCS2 charging standard, adding the inlets to new vehicles, offering adapters to existing vehicle owners and adding CCS2 connectors to Superchargers.

In China, Tesla equips its vehicles and Superchargers with the GB/T charging standard (an abbreviation of "GuoBiao/TuiJian", translated as "recommended national standard").

Network
Tesla Supercharger stations allow Tesla vehicles to be fast-charged and are often located near restaurants with restrooms and other commerce areas. In 2021, Tesla was in discussions to possibly open the network for usage by other EVs in Scandinavia.

The average number of Tesla cars per Supercharger stall was 34 in 2016. As of September 2023, Tesla bids building its chargers at about half the cost of its competitors. Cost estimates per station range from US$100,000 in 2013 to US$270,000 in 2015, depending on the number of stalls and other circumstances. Tesla estimates that station equipment lasts 12 years.

Most car charging occurs at home or work, a situation that Tesla has compared to cell phone charging. , less than 10% of charging came from Superchargers. In the month of July 2019, Tesla delivered 72 GWh through Superchargers.

Most Supercharger stations are owned by Tesla, but some are owned by fleet operators to charge their Tesla cars, such as taxis. These charger stalls are limited to 60 kW. In December 2017, Tesla changed its terms of service so that any vehicles being used as taxis or for commercial, ride-share, or government purposes were effectively banned from using Superchargers. This ban only applies to vehicles bought after December 15, 2017. Other charging options would be provided for these vehicles.

For 2021, Tesla states the network had 99.96% uptime (at least 50% daily capacity) and its power was 100% renewable (through solar power on-site and through purchasing electricity which was matched to renewable generation.)

Costs
Unlimited supercharging for life is free for all Model S and Model X cars that were ordered before January 15, 2017, or between August 2, 2019 and May 26, 2020, or for vehicles that were purchased using a referral code during certain periods.

Model S and Model X cars that were ordered between January 15, 2017, and November 2, 2018, received 400 kWh (about ) of free Supercharging credits per year. Once those credits are used, supercharging has a fee.

Between May 2017 and September 18, 2018, Tesla allowed existing owners to give free unlimited supercharging for life to up to five friends if the friend purchased a new Tesla and used their referral code. Tesla also offered all existing Tesla owners who purchased a new Model S, Model X or Performance Model 3 for themselves with free unlimited supercharging for life on those cars.

From time to time, Tesla has offered 1,000 or 2,000 miles of free supercharging as an incentive to purchase a new Tesla car.

Other than the above situations, Tesla Model S and Model X cars purchased between November 2, 2018, and August 2, 2019, and all Model 3 and Model Y cars purchased at any time do not receive any supercharging credits. Any charges are automatically billed to the Tesla account the car is associated with or to the credit card on file for that account.

Some jurisdictions require charging operators to bill users by time, not by kWh delivered, and Tesla uses 60 kW sections to bill for different power levels.

Idle fees
Since December 16, 2016, any car that remains connected to a Supercharger for more than 5 minutes after hitting the car's set charge limit may incur additional 'idle' fees. In the United States, there is no additional fee if the Supercharger station is less than half full, a fee of $0.50 per minute if the station is at least 50% full, and a fee of $1.00 per minute when the station is 100% full. Any incurred fees must be paid by the time of the next service visit.

Deployment

, Tesla operates a network of 5,500 Supercharger stations with 50,000 connectors, a 33% year-over-year growth. The network is primarily deployed in three regions: Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. There are 1,900 stations in the United States, 1,800 in China and 1,000 across Europe.

North America

The first Superchargers in the world opened in 2012 in the United States. Six stations were deployed along Interstate 5 in California enabling trips from Los Angeles and San Francisco and two stations deployed along Interstate 95 enabling trips between Boston and Washington DC. By mid-July 2013, 15 stations were open across the United States. The stations were developed and mass constructed in cooperation with Black & Veatch.

Supercharging stations were available in Canada along Ontario Highway 401 and Quebec Autoroute 20 corridor between Toronto and Montreal by 2014.

The initial network was built in high-traffic corridors across North America, followed by networks in Europe and Asia in the second half of 2013. The first Supercharger corridor in the US opened with free access in October 2012. This corridor included six stations placed along routes connecting San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. A second corridor was opened in December 2012 along the Northeast megalopolis, connecting Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. This corridor includes three stations in highway rest areas, one in Delaware and two adjacent ones in Connecticut. At some stations, the electricity is paid by local business to attract customers.

According to Musk, "...we expect all of the United States to be covered by the end of next year [2013]". He also said that early Tesla owners' use of the network would be free forever.

Most of the southern Trans-Canada Highway was covered at the end of 2019.

Tesla has signed an agreement to build BP Pulse-branded Supercharger stations. The US$100 million deal will add chargers starting in 2024 to sites across BP's brands including TravelCenters of America, Thorntons, ampm and Amoco, as well as at the company's large-scale Gigahub charging sites and at third-party locations, such as Hertz rental lots. The first installation sites have been identified in Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C. Tesla indicated that selling fast-charging hardware to others was a business that the company was looking to expand.

Europe

In early 2015, the first European Supercharger was upgraded with a 'solar canopy' (a carport with solar cells on the roof) in Køge, Denmark. According to the person responsible for Tesla's Superchargers in the Nordic countries, Christian Marcus, the 12-stall Supercharger in Køge has solar cells with a projected annual production of about 40MWh and is equipped with its own battery bank for temporary storage of excess production. Unlike most other European Supercharger stations, Tesla has bought the land on which the Køge Supercharger stands. On April 26, 2016, Kostomłoty became the first charger to open in Poland. Tesla opened a grid-connected 2-stall Supercharger at Nürburgring in 2019. There are a few privately operated Supercharger stations such as the one opened on April 27, 2016, in Zarechye, Russia, with 3 stalls.

In 2015 the European Supercharger network was planned to allow a Model S to drive from the North Cape (near Honningsvåg) in Norway to Istanbul or Lisbon. , there are Supercharger stations in or near both Istanbul and Lisbon. The map of current and planned sites includes every European Union country except Malta and Cyprus, and represents all of the countries in the world in the top 10 of electric vehicle adoption rates.

Tesla started testing the charging of non-Tesla cars in Netherlands in 2021, and in Norway in early 2022 on 15 large uncongested stations. Tesla opened up many uncongested and new stations for non-Tesla cars in several countries during 2022, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. The governments in Europe give large financial support for building new stations but require those to allow cars regardless of brand.

Asia-Pacific
Superchargers operate in China, where Shanghai has 1,000 chargers at 100 locations in late 2021, Beijing has 800, and Tibet is accessible.

Australia, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand also have Superchargers.

Largest Supercharger stations
These are the top 10 largest Supercharger stations (by number of stalls) in the world:

Megacharger

In November 2017, Tesla announced a higher-capacity Megacharger as part of the unveiling of a prototype for its Tesla Semi, a semi-trailer truck. These Megachargers provide of charge in 30 minutes to the Tesla Semis. Analysts estimated it would likely have a charge output level of over one megawatt.

In November 2021, the first Megacharger was installed at the Gigafactory Nevada where the Tesla Semi is built. A second Megacharger was permitted for construction at a PepsiCo facility in Modesto, California, in late 2021.

The megawatt-class cable for the Megacharger supports three times the current density of the V3 Supercharger —35 amperes/mm2 versus approximately 12 for the V3. The cable will also be liquid-cooled to support 1000-amp charge rates at 1000 volts.

See also
Charging station
Electric vehicle charging network

References

External links

Charts of Supercharger stations over time

Automotive technologies
Charging stations
Supercharger
Commercial machines