Third-generation Tesla Supercharger to double existing UK charger capacity

News

2 mins read

22 May 2018

Tesla will reveal its third generation of the Supercharger later this summer, CEO Elon Musk has revealed.

The current Supercharger charges at a capacity of 120kW and the next-gen version is likely to double this, given Musk’s previous comments.

While the second-gen Supercharger is currently the UK’s fastest, charge point provider Pod Point announced in February that 150kW chargers are on their way in the first half of the year.

Criticising the Ionity European charger network that's founded by BMW, Daimler, Ford and the Volkswagen Group and has a charger capacity of up to 350kW, Musk said during Tesla’s first quarter earnings call that “it [a 350kW charger] doesn’t actually make a ton of sense, unless you’ve got a monster battery pack”. He had also previously mocked the 350kW capacity as "a children's toy" on Twitter. In the earnings call, Musk mooted an intended 200-250kW capacity for the third Supercharger.

The announcement comes as Tesla ramps up production of the Model 3 amid growing competition; the first Jaguar I-Pace examples will reach customers long before the first Model 3s will come to the UK. More in league with the Model 3’s approximate £40,000 starting price will be the Hyundai Kona Electric, a £36,000 small electric SUV with a range of around 300 miles on the NEDC test cycle.

Controversially, the 45-minute-to-80% rapid charge time of the Jaguar I-Pace was not attainable from any UK charger at the time of the car’s reveal, with only Tesla Superchargers providing enough capacity to facilitate that time. Tesla has not yet collaborated with other car makers on its charge network, but Musk has explained: “So far, none of the other car makers have wanted to do this. It’s not because of opposition from us. This is not a walled garden.”

Musk clarified that more expensive models are delivered first to customers, saying: “Shipping minimum-cost Model 3 right away would cause Tesla to lose money and die. We need three to six months after 5000 units per week to ship $35k Tesla and live.”