Connect with us

News

Tesla begins Supercharger CCS upgrade ahead of Model 3 rollout in Europe

(Photo: Hans Noordsij)

Published

on

It is still a couple of months before Model 3 deliveries in Europe are expected to begin, but Tesla is already starting the rollout of dual-charge CCS Superchargers in the region. The company confirmed last month that the Model 3 will be getting a CCS plug for Europe, while a CCS adapter will be introduced for the Model S and X. During its announcement for the Model 3’s charging standard for the region, Tesla noted that it would be “retrofitting our existing Superchargers with dual charge cables to enable Model 3, which will come with a CCS Combo 2 charge port, to use the Tesla Supercharger network.”

Tesla’s adoption of CCS (Combined Charging System) is a notable step for the electric car maker. CCS, after all, is prevalent in the region, being preferred by several European carmakers including BMW, Volkswagen and the Daimler group. The system combines the Type 2 design, which is used for slower AC charging at home or work, as well as with two large DC pins for rapid charging. CCS competes with the CHAdeMO rapid charging standard, which is being used by companies such as Nissan, Mitsubishi and Subaru.

Tesla owner-enthusiast Hans Noordsij visited the site of Tesla’s first dual charge Supercharger station, where he was able to take photos and meet Tesla staff who were working on the updated charging stall. Several details of the upgraded Supercharger were evident from Hans’ images, including a sign indicating that the new stations are “Model 3 Priority.”

One of Tesla’s first dual-charge, CCS-compatible Superchargers in Europe. (Photo: Hans Noordsij)

Speaking to Teslarati after his trip to the Supercharger, Hans noted that Tesla was testing the connection of a Model 3 to the dual charge station when he arrived. Tesla’s staff reportedly informed him that they were aiming to add CCS connectors to every Supercharger in the Netherlands sometime in January.

We reached out to Tesla for more information about its first dual charge CCS Supercharger in Europe. The electric car maker noted that the first upgraded stations are located at the Badhoevedorp Supercharger near the Corendon Village Hotel, just outside Amsterdam. The site currently has 20 Superchargers, and Tesla is installing 8 more stalls on the site, each of which is fitted with both a CCS and a Type 2 connector. When completed, 8 out of the 28 stalls in the location would be compatible with the Model 3, S, and X, while the remaining 20 would be compatible with the flagship sedan and SUV.

Tesla plans to fully retrofit Europe’s Supercharger Network with its dual charge CCS system, allowing the Model 3 to have access to Tesla’s expansive charging infrastructure. While Tesla is in the process of retrofitting its Superchargers with CCS plugs, though, Model 3 owners in the region could expect their vehicles to smartly suggest charging stations that are fitted with the necessary connectors. The location, as well as the availability of these CCS stalls, would be displayed on the Model 3’s display.

Advertisement
-
-

A Tesla Model 3 gets connected to one of Tesla’s first dual-charge, CCS-compatible Superchargers in Europe. (Photo: Hans Noordsij)

Europe is a pivotal part of Tesla’s strategy for the Model 3, considering that the premium sedan segment is twice as big in the region as it is in the United States. The Model 3 is already performing well in the US, despite the country being enamored by SUVs and pickup trucks. In a market where sedans are prevalent such Europe, the Model 3’s potential is vast.

Considering that Tesla is now rolling out CCS plugs on its European Supercharger Network, the idea of Tesla sharing its charging infrastructure with other electric cars emerges once more. Tesla’s head of global charging infrastructure, Drew Bennett, addressed this in an interview with Auto Express UK, where he noted that several EV makers have already reached out to Tesla about sharing the Supercharger Network.

“We’re definitely open to talking to other car manufacturers who want to have access to the network. Capacity is a driver for our investment; it’s new routes, new markets and then capacity. A lot of car makers have spoken to us about it, but we haven’t had any conclusive discussions on it. They’re still trying to figure out what they would need in a network, but we’re a couple of years ahead of them in terms of embracing the investment required to transition to EVs,” Bennett said.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says flying cars are coming

Published

on

Credit: Grok Imagine

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that flying cars will be coming to the market, something that his own company has hinted at previously.

Musk said on X, in response to a post that read, “We were promised flying cars and all we got is infinite superintelligence for everyone,” “You will get flying cars.”

The post rang back to when Musk teased flying and hovering capabilities for the Tesla Roadster, the company’s supercar that has been delayed more times than anyone cares to count. It was set for an unveiling earlier this year, but it was then pushed back to August. There is still no sign of it coming.

However, that does not mean it won’t. But one of the biggest features of the Roadster that was teased was a SpaceX package that featured cold gas thrusters on the rear end that would help with white-knuckle acceleration. Another set would face the ground and would help the Roadster gain small bits of altitude, potentially helpful to jump over obstacles.

Elon Musk hints at Tesla Roadster’s “hovering” abilities in SpaceX package

Advertisement
-
-

But it is not a straightforward thing for Musk. As a serial entrepreneur, he tends to spend his time on major disruptors; currently, his largest projects are artificial intelligence and compute power, as well as SpaceX’s launches that will eventually make life multiplanetary.

In the past, he has been critical of flying cars and has been in favor of tunnels, one of the big reasons he started the Boring Company. In 2017 at a TED talk, he said:

“There is a challenge with flying cars in that they’ll be quite noisy. The wind force generated will be very high. Let’s just say that if something’s flying over your head, if there are a whole bunch of flying cars all over the place, that is not an anxiety-reducing situation…You’re thinking, ‘Did they service their hubcap? Or is it going to come off and guillotine me as they’re flying past?’”

However, he’s never been against them. He has also said he’s in favor of both tunnels and flying cars.

Most recently, Musk said that anyone who wants a flying car should be able to get one. This was stated last October on the Joe Rogan Experience:

Advertisement
-
-

“My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars… I think if Peter wants a flying car, we should be able to buy one.”

Whether the Roadster will be Tesla’s flying car or potentially another one remains in the mind of Musk. Of course, the Roadster will have to make its way to production lines before we find out.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

SpaceX’s next trillion dollar bet has nothing to do with rockets, Musk tells staff

Elon Musk told SpaceX staff AI revenue will soon dwarf rockets and Starlink combined entirely.

Published

on

By

Elon Musk told SpaceX employees this week that artificial intelligence, not rockets, will soon carry the company’s revenue. In a roughly 29 minute internal address posted on SpaceX’s X account on Tuesday, Musk said AI revenue will pass every other line of business at SpaceX “probably in September” and pull further ahead by the fourth quarter.

The numbers he gave are specific. SpaceX currently runs 1.4 gigawatts of AI compute capacity. Musk wants that at 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, a jump he tied directly to revenue: “if we bring 10GW of AI online by the end of next year, it will be $300 billion to $500 billion a year in revenue.” He called those “big numbers,” which undersells a projection larger than what most countries produce in a year.

Musk went further on where AI fits into SpaceX’s future. “Probably in four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value of SpaceX,” he told staff, adding that digital intelligence would eventually run “a trillion times” ahead of biological intelligence as computing scales. He tied that growth to the company’s founding mission, telling employees “we must win on AI, because the future is overwhelmingly AI and robots,” with the payoff meant to help fund Starship and a Mars program that increasingly runs through Terafab, the joint Tesla, SpaceX and xAI chip plant.

Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry

Advertisement
-
-

None of this is entirely new territory. SpaceX told investors much the same story during its first earnings call as a public company on August 4, where Musk moved the company’s $1 trillion revenue target up a year to 2030 and said Starlink could someday carry a majority of the world’s internet. What the all hands video adds is a hard deadline and a specific power figure Musk had not given publicly before, along with a franker pitch to his own workforce that AI, not launch cadence, is now the thing SpaceX is betting its future on.

The AI revenue itself is not coming from SpaceX training its own models. It is largely Starlink acting as the network layer for xAI’s workloads, plus SpaceX renting out compute capacity directly, the same approach behind the roughly $16 billion the company spent on AI infrastructure in a single quarter.

Musk closed the video with a pitch aimed at recruiting and retention rather than investors, telling employees that anyone who helps SpaceX win the AI race will eventually get the chance to go to the moon or Mars themselves. Whether SpaceX can turn 1.4 gigawatts into 10 in seventeen months is the more immediate question, and one that will show up in quarterly numbers well before anyone leaves Earth.

Continue Reading

Investor's Corner

Tesla has one big financial question to answer for investors: Morgan Stanley

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

In a new note to investors on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco said that Tesla has one big financial question to answer for investors regarding its Robotaxi rollout, Full Self-Driving software, and Optimus.

Percoco said in the note that, for the most part, investors are still very positive about the direction the company is headed. However, there are some things the firm would like to see, and they have to do with financials.

Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue

Tesla bulls are more than convinced that the company’s Full Self-Driving software is proof it can develop physical AI. Financially, however, there are still some questions, especially on elevated spending, which CEO Elon Musk said would occur as the company works to roll out Robotaxi faster and continue developing its Optimus robot.

The latter two are where Tesla will have to prove progress to investors, as Percoco writes that both projects “will require clearer evidence that Robotaxi is scaling and more tangible Optimus proof points to support the ROI on elevated capex.”

Percoco said the second quarter earnings call did not change his long-term thesis of where Tesla is positioned in the AI race, which is out in front. However, there are concerns that weaker gross margins and higher R&D spend will stress financials, and that has “sharpened our (and investors’) focus on measurable progress across Robotaxi and Optimus.”

Additionally, Robotaxi still needs to be proven with more operation in existing cities while maintaining safety but improving how many rides it gives in any given time, he said. For Optimus, Percoco wrote that he is “still looking for evidence beyond commentary around SOP.”

Advertisement
-
-

Morgan Stanley put Percoco in charge of covering Tesla after long-time analyst Adam Jonas transitioned to the automotive side.

Currently, Morgan Stanley has a $415 price target on Tesla and a ‘Hold’ rating on the stock. It is trading at around $330 at the time of publication, which was 2:30 P.M. on the East Coast.

Continue Reading