Five to Ten Minute Electric Car Charging in the Near Future from New Tesla Generation Superchargers

Elon Musk teases new 'Tesla Supercharger V3' with over 350 kW power output and off-grid solar + Powerpacks

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was on Twitter this morning responding to a few questions - primarily about the new Easter Eggs the company included in its latest updates, but I thought maybe we could get a proper 'Elon Tweetstorm' on Christmas eve so I asked him about an update on Tesla's plans to install solar arrays at Supercharger stations?

From article, (Tesla indeed operates a few Supercharger stations with solar arrays – like the Hawthorne Supercharger pictured above – but they only represent a small fraction of Tesla’s 760+ stations. But more importantly, It’s the first time we’ve heard about a third generation of Tesla’s Supercharger and that’s not all, Musk also hinted at a power output greater than 350 kW – up from the current ~150 kW.

We recently reported on automakers and charging station manufacturers starting to build what they are referring to as ‘ultra-fast’ charging stations with a power output of up to 350 kW. Five major automakers recently joined forces to deploy 400 of those stations in Europe and more recently, EVgo announced a similar station in California.

Fred Lambert

✔@FredericLambert

@elonmusk Any update on plan to install solar arrays at Supercharger stations?

Elon Musk

✔@elonmusk

There are some installed already, but full rollout really needs Supercharger V3 and Powerpack V2, plus SolarCity. Pieces now in place.

1:13 PM - Dec 24, 2016

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 Musk is teasing a power output greater than “a mere 350 kW”. It would be a significant upgrade and depending on the deployment schedule, it could blow past the stations from other companies planned only for late 2017 and 2018.

The latest version of the Supercharger brought the capacity to 145 kW – meaning that over 350 kW would be something else entirely.

After unveiling the Supercharger in 2012, Tesla CTO JB Straubel said that Tesla aims to bring the charging down to 5 to 10 minutes:

“It’s not going to happen in a year from now. It’s going to be hard. But I think we can get down to five to 10 minutes,”)

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